Saying Happy Birthday with a Portal Cake

Today I turn 31. Last year, when I hit 30, I decided I was going to make the most out of my new decade and start living more for myself … to follow some dreams and kick up some dust. And to kick things off for my 30th year, I baked 100+ mini cupcakes for my birthday party. You know, like you do.

This year, for my birthday party which we had on Saturday, I baked a cake … a Portal Cake to be exact. If you’re not a video game nerd, or not dating/married to one (or really the mother, father, brother, sister, best friend, cousin to one), then you might be scratching your head.

In Portal, a very creative and funky puzzler from Valve, the player completes a variety of tasks (puzzles) in a research facility guided by a snarky and fairly-all-knowing computer named GlaDOS. As an incentive, GlaDOS often mentions that there will  be cake following the experiment.

However, as the game progresses, the player finds messages from previous test subjects written on the walls; one message  reads “the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie.”

Anyway, you can read more about it on this Portal wiki.

Because I’m a nerd (and proud of it), I decided to bake the cake from Portal for my birthday. I took liberties with the flavor, but followed the basic look, which is a cake covered in chopped chocolate, topped with cherries and a candle. Guests at the party loved it (and of course, they were the right crowd for it, considering that most of them were either video game enthusiasts or actual video game developers).

Check back on Friday for the recipe for my cake. Until then, happy testing!