My 12-year-old niece is having a birthday in a few months and I’d like to pull a gag that has it explode in her face (gently explode–I don’t want any eyeballs bouncing on the floor) when she blows out the candles. The perfect gag would:
Direct the cake shrapnel right into her face (instead of just indiscriminately throwing cake all around).
Be hard to detect. I’m known for being a jokester and if something looks a bit odd she may catch on.
Be easy to clean up afterwords.
Safe. No firecrackers or sticks of dynamite.
How would you suggest I do this? I thought about trying to fill a small balloon with whipped cream but it probably fails #1 above. I’m also not sure how to remotely pop it. I will probably make the cake using a bundt pan and put the exploding bits in the middle. Any ideas?
Would it be acceptable instead to lift up the entire cake intact and smoosh it into her face? Because it might be possible to rig up something spring-loaded that would do that. How much damage are you willing to do the the table? Because it might be easiest to just have a hole in the table with someone hiding underneath to do the smooshing by hand.
Alternately, you might try to just spray whipped cream out of some sort of a nozzle, rather than going for something more explosion-like.
yeah, here’s an idea. if the table’s the kind where you can expand it and put leaves in the gap, then you could rig up a contraption to do what Chronos suggests. You’d need to make a leaf that has the contraption attached and a tablecloth to conceal your dastardly deeds, but by my eye it’s the one thing that meets all of your criteria. Trying to make the cake “explode” while not causing any injury, making a big mess, or whatever is probably going to be hard. I mean, it may seem innocuous, but getting frosting or cake crumb in the eye doesn’t sound all that pleasant.
If the cake hits her intact, I’d be worried about her being stuck in the eye with a candle. If the cake ‘explodes’ the candles have a better chance of flying not into her eyes.
I just googled “how to make a cake explode” and the first response could work. The suggestion was to make a layer cake and hollow out the center (but I’m sure a well frosted bundt cake would work fine) and then fill a balloon with whiped cream. You’re right, triggering remotely would be difficult, but it should explode when the knife hits it. Alternatively, filling the cake with a water balloon, probably won’t explode but could have do something equally interesting…though I’m not really sure what.
ETA, be a good uncle and make sure there’s a spare cake ready to replace this one.
What about a length of aquarium tubing, laid under the frosting, with a load of sprinkles set just at the end? You take the other end, unnoticed in all the singing and frivolity, and blow into the tube just as she blows the candles out. Frosting and sprinkles ensue.
This would require some practice, of course, to get the right diameter tubing, correct frosting depth and whatnot. Still, safe and fun (for one of you, anyway!)
The next google hit I looked at said to fill the balloon with acetylene and set it off with a model rocket ignitor. I’ll give that one points for elegance, but her parents might be annoyed when she loses part of her face. Probably shouldn’t do it that way.
I’m thinking of something like an airbag. Get a hatbox that’s cake-shaped, decorate it like a cake. In the hatbox have a plastic bag large enough to throw the lid off of the hatbox, connected to tubing, that you either blow in, or have hooked to a rapid-release CO2 canister.
You could even try using the old Diet Coke + Mentos, if you’re willing to experiment some to get it right. Tubing glued to a drilled out bottle cap, and the Mentos in the tubing. At the right moment, screw the cap on tightly, and turn the bottle upside down. All the CO2 pressure should force the bag open. You might also make a mess with coke, but if you’re already exploding cakes, I think that’s the least of your worries.
There is no safe way for a non professional to make something explode next to someone’s face. Please don’t do this. I’m sure you can find some other way to be unpleasant to your niece.
The one option I’ve seen, which doesn’t involve actual ‘exploding’, is to hollow out the middle of the cake and put in there a spring loaded disc. Which when ‘cocked’ lies flat, is duly covered in frosting and/or a thin layer of actual cake, and when released springs up in the direction of the victim and throws ‘catapult-like’ a chunk of cake and frosting.
The suggestion I’ve seen is to use an old can, so you can secure the spring to the sides which will snug nicely inside the cake, the lid is the bit that spings up hurling the cake. You just need a spring loaded hinge and someway to release it. Which with some tricky maneveuring could be as simple as a piece of string or fishing line out of the bottom of the cake and when pulled releases the catch on the springed hinge.
In Heston’s Feasts, chef Heston Blumenthal wanted to make an ejaculating cake. On the show he experimented with Mentos and Coke and dry ice and water. Without a vent he got a proper explosion and spattered everyone with cake.
A simple and safe ‘gag’ cake is to simply make a fake one from foam rubber or plastic. Cover with real icing and decorations and insist that your niece cut the cake for all party guests.
For the imploding cake (does seem safer and simpler), somehow install a bag of… colored water… or other liquid or paste… blood red would be effective, but maybe too much so… green slime might work out…
…or a prettily frosted block of wood… disk-like, just like a cake… (simulposted with above idea)…
I’m just brainstorming. Sometimes I only achieve brainshowers. Or brainfog.
So, a popping balloon bears a strong risk of causing serious bodily injury? The OP says right off the bat that he doesn’t intend to use chemical explosives, and there are plenty of mechanical ways to safely splatter a cake.
Someone I know filled a balloon with water, put it in the middle of the cake ( I believe cake surrounded the balloon on all sides, decorated the cake, and handed her teen son the knife to cut the cake. When the knife encounter the balloon, Big Mess!
Birthday Boy was thrilled to discover that there was fresh homemade celebratory cheesecake being served INSIDE the house (the first cake was “served” outside).
I really hate to be a killjoy because I like to think I enjoy a good prank as much as anybody. But I just can’t help thinking that this would be an incredibly douchey thing to do to a 12-year-old girl in front of her friends and family.
I have to say don’t do it. Save your exploding cake idea for your next fraternity reunion or something.
Seconded. A “prank” is when your adult buddy passes out drunk and you decorate him with shaving cream and cigarette butts, and put pictures on the Internet.
Blowing up a birthday cake in a little girl’s face is just mean.