Creative Cakes

This tool assists bakers of extravagant cakes by generating multiple alternative designs that optimize their clients’ needs.

The changeable variables are the inputs that define the different cake designs to showcase the options for the clients. These variables include the cake height and bottom tier width, the colors of the top and bottom tiers, and the level of detail in the cake decorations. Note that the middle tier width and top tier width are proportional to the bottom tier width to provide stability to the cake. The middle tier color is dictated by the colors of the other two tiers to create a pleasant gradient of colors.

Fixed variables in the program include the decorating labor cost, ingredient cost, average cake density, typical serving volume, color saturation cost, oven energy consumption, baking time per pound of cake, and decorating time per surface area. These are average values from research, but the baker is allowed to edit the backend Dynamo script as prices fluctuate or for special cases.

Creative Cakes uses these variables to compute the cost, number of servings, time required, and the expended energy to report to the client, along with various illustrations of the alternatives. These data will allow the baker and their clients to confirm that the criteria are being met and to confirm the budget, volume, and vision for the product.

Dynamo Script Details

Using the changeable and fixed variables describe in the prior section, first three solids are constructed by lofting circular profiles. These circles have different radii depending on to which tier they correspond. The dynamic inputs control the radius of the bottom tier which dictates the other two radii. The height of each tier is one third of the to total height of the cake which corresponds the lofting locations of each of the cylinders.

The full solid is evaluated by isolating the surfaces and recording the measures of interest: surface areas and the total volume. Note that at this point, the color of the tiers is also applied.

The desired outputs are then computed using the recorded measures of the cake geometry and color. These values are reported for each cake generation.