Flying Cake (Trial 001)

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On Saturday, I met my group at the studio and we set to work on the first cake flight. Scott brought in six over-sized, helium-filled balloons, but they struggled to lift an empty Nalgene bottle. A trip to the 99cent store for more balloons also failed to turn the tables in our favor. We hollowed out all but the outer ring of an angel food cake and frosted what was left. From the beginning, the integrity of the floating cake has always been paramount and, as such, we were never interested in floating a box that looked like a cake.

Unfortunately, even the lightest store bought angel food cake (which, by the by, was infinitely lighter than the one we baked in Maira's kitchen) is too heavy to really take flight without strapping an unsightly number of balloons to the base. We have since resolved to frost styrofoam and even sculpt cupcakes, create vacuum molds and churn out perfect, hand painted, nerf foam replicas. All these eventualities didn't stop us from shooting a few screen tests for the ugly prototype. In the end, it took flight twice, owing more to large gusts of wind than defiance of gravity. Pretty magical, if I do say so myself. We are shooting again tomorrow with lighter materials. Here's hoping the fucker floats for a few hours.