Great Physics Bake Off!

For the next few blog posts I intend to share with you all a few of my interests beyond Physics (although some of them maybe a bit sneaky and incorporate physics into them too. Because well, physics is pretty awesome right?). I have many and varied interests. This is probably a product of my parents only allowing a limited amount of TV/computer time a day when I was little - to be honest though it was a good thing in end. Ok yes mum, you were right... Anyway, I enjoy lots of things, not all of which will get a mention here (I know you all were desperate to hear about my first forays into Morris dancing, but unfortunately I don't have the time. And well you might giggle. Although it is actually so much harder than it looks and also loads of fun!)

So back to the blog. This week, in honour of the fact that the latest series of the Great British Bakeoff has begun recently I'm going to talk about something I really enjoy - you guessed it - baking! For any of my non British readers who don't know what this is - it's a TV series where amateur bakers compete for the title of 'best British baker'. Yes I hear you - how can baking be that exciting? Well trust me it's possible. The tense atmosphere as the competitors wait for Paul and Mary's comments ("Well you've got a nice crumb, although it's a bit dry and I really can't detect the lavender"), the emotions running high when a baker's scones haven't risen properly, the euphoria as someone manages to construct an elaborate model of the Eiffel Tower made entirely out of shortbread - it's great. Love it (like record numbers of the British population - I'm not the only one!) or loathe it one thing I think we can agree on is that baked goods are great. And an hours worth of looking at cake per week is an hour worth spent in my opinion. 

So baking. I thought it would be fun to come up with some physics themed baked goods for your delight. Whilst I love baking, I can't make all of these in one week, so most are just described for you. When I get round to making them (and trust me I plan to!) you can be assured of a photo accompanied by a recipe, which I'll update on here as I go.

Bread

"Entangled strings" (string theory) Plaited loaf - a Great British Bake-off classic - Paul Hollywood's 8 strand plaited loaf. A recipe for those who enjoy complicated recipes (although if you ever enjoyed making complicated friendship bracelets this is the recipe for you! Click on the photo of my finished creation for the recipe!

The finished creation! 

Cake

Nebula cupcakes - a lovely little set of chocolate cupcakes topped with icing and edible glitter and stars - also brilliant as the messier you are with your glitter the more like nebulas they look!

Biscuits

Quark macaroons - 6 flavours! You can even ice the top with up, down, top, bottom, charm and strange symbols if you want. 

Desserts

"Brownie-n motion" and shake in a bag ice cream - stir through some chocolate chips and scatter some on top to demonstrate the random dispersion of particles in a fluid (well sort of!). This is also the best ever brownie recipe I've come across. Serve with ice cream made by shaking the ingredients in a bag of ice - makes lovely ice cream, can cater for different dietary requirements, shows physics in action and is a great science experiment for kids. What's not to love?!

Pastry

Newton's apple pie - I was actually lucky enough to have some apple from Newton's apple tree (in the physics department of York university they had a cutting of the tree which grew and produces apples). Whilst this will have to use normal cooking apples, maybe you could come up with other ways of making it a Newton Apple pie? Decorate it with extra pastry, serve it by whizzing it across the table and demonstrate those laws in action! Maybe I'll even write out the recipe in Newtons!

EDIT: Just realised I missed an obvious opportunity to make a Pi Pie. Maybe I still will...!

If you haven't seen the ASDF movies, click here. You must!

So well as you can see some of these sound delicious if I say so myself! Can you come up with any creative physics themed baked goods? Keep checking back here to catch up on my progress and check out the recipes!