WORDS AND PHOTOS: Katie Teed
Technically Friday, February 12th, was the 201st anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday but because that day coincides with another little event you may have heard of called the Olympic opening ceremonies the anniversary of his birth was celebrated a few days early at UBC. On February 9th, a group of scientists with an affliction for baked goods, got together at the new Beaty Biodiversity Museum to celebrate by baking the evolutionary biologist a cake.
It was a small crowd but there were definitely some creative (and tasty) entries! It was cool to see that some of the cakes were highly scientific and came with extensive explanations, which meant I got to learn while eating cake (win/win).
Darwin made a special afterlife appearance to judge the cakes
They gave out a range of prizes that included crowd favourite, best tasting, best use of biodiversity, most artistic, and they also awarded an overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize. It's hard to remember them all so below I've recapped the podium.
In reverse order:
3rd prize went to the cookies - super creative - they only got 3rd on a technicality because it wasn't technically a cake.
2nd prize went to the cupcakes - which were titled "Speciation of C. chocolate, a ring species native to the "Sierra Vanilla" Mountains. These were delicious and were accompanied by a lengthily explanation.
1st prize went to my valentine cake which was a tribute to THIS online valentine that circulated the Internet last year. If anyone knows who created it please let me know. I'd love to send them a picture of my cake!
It's an annual event so if you like an interesting baking challenge (or eating cake) keep your eyes peeled to their web site around this time next year. There is a good chance you haven't heard of the Beaty yet because the museum technically hasn't opened to the public yet, but maybe you've heard of the giant blue whale skeleton they are putting in their entrance way. They are set to open in the next few months but in the meantime they have a lot of great educational programming and lectures to check out.
One of the interesting scientific write ups that accompanied many of the cakes
The crowd of eager cake samplers. It was cool that they encouraged everyone to bring their own plate to be more environmentally friendly
3rd place cookie (the anti-cake)
2nd place cupcakes
1st place Darwin valentine cake
A neat cake with a cool tree made of sugar on top
