Noobcake

T (age 14), was bored the other day, and decided to entertain himself by baking a cake. After discovering we only had strawberry, and sprinkle type mixes on hand, I heard him exclaim, "Noobcake!"

Noobcake is a term he's picked up from Roblox (an online, semi-educational game). It's a term used to make fun of new users (as in newbies, or noobs), and a term, I generally object to him calling his brother or sisters. This time, though, as he said it, I could see the light bulb going on over his head, as the idea of making a "Noob" cake took shape in his mind.


He mixed up the batter, and baked the cake in a 9x13 inch pan, according to the directions on the box.



Then, he, placed the cake onto a large, tinfoil covered, cookie sheet to cool, and cut it into three pieces, as shown...


...and finally into five pieces.


He removed the middle left, and bottom right pieces, and cut along the curved edge of the bottom left piece, to make it a straight rectangle.


Finally, he arranged the pieces into the shape of a Roblox Noob...


...before covering it in plastic wrap, and placing it in the freezer for a few hours, so the cut edges would be easier to frost (an old Martha Stewart trick, I was happy to pass onto him).


I mixed up a double batch of butter cream frosting (1 and 1/3 cup softened butter, 4 cups of powdered sugar, creamed together with a couple of tablespoons of milk to desired, frosting thickness), for him to divide up, and dye with food coloring.

He colored half of it yellow, to be used for the Noob's head and arms. A couple of tablespoons worth of the remaining frosting was removed, and dyed black, for piping on a face, and outlining the pants, and the rest was divided in half, and dyed blue for the shirt, and green for the pants.


At this point G (age 12), also a Roblox fan, jumped in to help with the frosting, and T stepped back into a supervisory role.



They asked me to redo the crooked mouth (pictured at the top of the post), but other than that, they handled the creative process on their own. And, quite honestly, I like the look of the first mouth better.


This one's for all the folks who worry about the creativity-sapping effects of prolonged exposure to video and computer games.

It's great to be a homeschooler.