Pob's Mystery Mod

[Pob255]

I've had an idea for a mod it'll be a couple of weeks before I can start it, however I'm going to be evil and keep this a mystery.

I'm really not sure if it'll work but it'll be fun trying.

Now I'll leave you with this clue.

[Funkstar]

a PC in the shape of a cake?

Does that make the PC a lie?

[nibbler]

A compute that expands when heated? Could be useful actually.

[mikemikemi]

A pc that is a cake? Or a pc that bakes a cake?

[jim]

Flower Power!

[matty-hodgson]

It's so obvious .

He's gonna pump the warm air from the GTX480 quad SLI set-up, straight into an oven to bake cakes in..

EDIT: Either that, or he uploaded the wrong photo accidentally

[Behemoth]

I think he's got the wrong end of the stick if he's doing a bread board mod

[Stephen C]

Definitely going to need one of these - http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/ezbake.shtml

[jim]

Okay, maybe it's a kitchen PC of some kind.

Project Breadbin?

[Pob255]

Ok the time has come to fully reveal this project, mainly because it's toooo damn cold to go out onto my balcony to do the small amount needed to finish off Project Otherhalf

My plan is to bake a hollow cake and stick an mITX board into it, step two which will be further delayed due it the weather conditions is to make a box stand which will house the PSU and hard drive.
Although If I can get a pico unit then I should be able to get around that

The delays has been caused by me not being able to find a large enough square cake tin.
Luckily my mother had a dig around in her cupboards and found a 9inch cake tin that was just the right size for my plans.

So here we go: Experimental Computer Cake Mk1


Materials required


Tools required

Now I'm going to use my nice basic quick fruit cake recipe for the mk1 test, I decided against a sponge as I don't think it will have the strength required when hollow, however fruit cake is more robust and should have the needed material strength.

The recipe is
8oz Self Raising Flour
4oz Caster Sugar
2 Large Eggs
4oz Margarine
5oz Mixed Dried Fruit
1tsp Ground Mixed Spice

Note: Normally when making this cake I would put the mixed spice and dried fruit into a tupperware container, pour on some booze (brandy, whisky, dark run, sloe gin or even port works well, just depends what I have to hand, about 1tbsp per oz of dried fruit (+ mixed peal + nuts + glace cherries depending on recipe), then seal that and leave to soak for at least 24 hours, all the fruit plumps up absorbing the liquid and stops you getting dried up hard fruit in your cake.

Step One


Cream the marg and sugar together then add in the fruit and blend well

Step Two


Add in the two eggs and blend well.

Step Three


Add the flour, not all at once but about 2oz at a time and mix in fully before adding the next 2oz of flour.



This is the end result.

Now on to the tin, this is where it gets a bit more complex and experimental, now I could of just made one giant cake (triple or quadruple the amounts of mixture) and then hollowed it out or make up a couple of cakes cut them into slices and use the slices to make panels.
But I want to do this the hard way I did originally want to bake it as one complete hollow cake, I was thinking this, one large hollow cake tin, with a smaller tin upside down in the middle, pour the mixture all over and bake.
However I've not been able to find the right size tins for that so this is my plan.



7inch tin (correct size for an mITX board to go in) inside the 9inch, mixture goes in around the edges, giving me a hollow square wall 1 inch thick
Carefully cut the top so it's flat, then I can then make a 2nd cake in the 9inch tin and stand that on top, use cocktail sticks to hold it together.
Will this work? . . . maybe, maybe not.

First issue I face is how to get the mixture in the gap, it's quire thick and gunky, normally you just dig it out and slap it into the middle of the tin, then shake the tin to spread it out.

So I cut the corner off a plastic bag to make a pipeing bag to try to pipe the mixture in.


This actually worked very well

However it was a heck of a lot of hassle trying to get the mixture into the bag

After a bit of frustration and finally scoping and spooning in the last of the mixture carefully by hand it's ready for the oven.


Now it it goes at 180degrees C for 1 hour, well if I was making a normal cake it would be 1 hour not sure about this so I'm going to check after 30min and then every 10min


Your not getting a shot of the oven, because I forgot to get more oven cleaner and it's far icky looking to expose in public

Come back soon to see how the mk1 experiment has turned out.

[nibbler]

You have my address, please post me the failed attempts at cakes

[Pob255]

You might just get a package, but they'll probably not survive long enough so all you'd get is an envelope with some crumbs in it.

Well here it is

Didn't rise as much as I hoped, I need to double the amounts I think.

First worry sign

the inner tin has risen slightly (it was sticking up far more than that, but when I put the tin down the inner tin dropped back down to this height)

I had worried slightly about mixture going under the inner tin.

However on removal from the tin all is well, I can only assume that as the mixture raised it had enough friction to lift the inner tin.

You may of spotted a break in the cake in that last photo.

Unfortunately yes it broke as I was getting it out of the tin

However that's a very minor problem.



What do I mean?



Well I'll let the photo speak for it self.





DOH!!!

Someone forgot to double check the measurements
The square cake tins are not straight sided but sloping, so while it's 6.5inches (inner size) at the top, it's only 6 inches at the bottom (inner size)
Also it seems cake tin size measurements include the lip at the top, so while this is what's called a 7inch tin it's only actually 6.5inch at the top and 6 inch at the bottom and mITX is 7inches exactly.

So yet again I'm stymied until I can get some even bigger tins or a smaller pc or hand build some tins to my required sizes.

[Grimley]

never mind. at least its a PC case you can eat!

[jim]

It's chisel time!

[Pob255]

Well today I bought more flour, marg, sugar and dried mixed fruit, so I'm ready for Experimental Computer Cake Mk2 this weekend, well after I also get some more eggs