Nom nom – International Pi Day!

Today is the 14th of March and that can only mean one thing. No, I don’t mean the birthday of Albert Einstein and Johann Strauss, I mean International Pi day! According to the Pi Day website:

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi (a Greek letter) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159.

Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point and is never-ending.
What sounds an awful lot like Pi? Pie! So, to commemorate International Pi day, I will provide you with some bakery goodness to drool over while you’re procrastinating from your calculus.

Of course, sometimes one piece just doesn’t cut it. msquaredgt at Instructables says: “When I think of pi, there are 3 numbers that pop into my mind right away: 3.14. So why not think out of the box and give those numbers the attention they deserve on their day!” With her Fruity Pi, she literaly made a Pie Pi! Notice the adorable little letters on the tiny dot and the assortment of fillings.

Paul Bracher at ChemBark stays within the science theme with this periodic table of cupcakes containing 83 (!) little home-made cakes. They were baked for a conference at Caltech. As you can see, every type of element contains a different kind of frosting. Would you try the one with sodium?

It appeared the princess has finally been rescued! M.A.L.‘s Mario Kart wedding cake was a big hit with the guests and I can totally see why. Every nitty gritty detail of this sculpture is fully edible. I can’t help but drool when I look at the stunning photographs. The cake is designed by Beth from Christopher Garrens.

For Lindsey Pullen, decorating is merely a hobby, but looking at her delightful cakes makes you wonder why she doesn’t go pro. She made this astonishing Harry Potter cake for a birthday. You just got to love all the attention she put into the design.. Check out more of her work at her blog.

Lenore Edman took the notion of an ‘apple pie’ quite literally. She posted a tutorial over at Evil Mad Scientist. You may need a tiny bit of patience or some fantastic laser equipment, but at least you can now combine your love for technology and noms.

When it comes to wedding cakes, your normal approach is useless here. The talented team of Pink Cake Box created this xkcd showstopper based on a comic drawn by Randall Munroe of xkcd: ‘a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.’ I would never think about making a wedding cake based on xkcd, but now that I’ve seen one, it has certainly sparked my interest!

These Street Party cake pops are just perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon. (Isn’t baking always good for drearily days?) They were originally designed for the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat them year-round. You can find an incredibly detailed tutorial at Bakerella.

Gotta guess them all! Flickr-user Andrei Zmievski posted a picture of the 100 Cupcakes Game, a collection of a hundred miniature cakes with various game-inspirered fondant decoration. Do you know what each cake represents? Play the challenge with your friends and see who knows their classics best!

Let’s end this post with an actual pie. Or, what is this exactly? As summer approached, Susan’s love for apple pie and the beach made her fabricated this apple pie-rate ship. She posted a very do-arrr-ble tutorial for us to enjoy at her blog Diamonds for Dessert.

That’s all, folks! I hope I’ve sparked your interest in both pi and baking, as mathematics and food are such lovely aspects of life!