Several weeks ago, Emily had the opportunity to make a cell cake for extra credit in her science class.
It could be made of any food as long as it was all edible and large enough to feed half of her class.
She chose to make an animal cell cake, which is round.
We did a lot of research on the internet to get some ideas for what to use for different parts of the cake.
Emily wanted to look like the cell was cut open so we baked one cake in a large round baking pan and another cake in a large glass bowl to make a dome for the top of the cell.
We cut off some dome cake so that we can add in all of our cell parts.
Parts of an Animal Cell Cake Model
- Cytoplasm – yellow frosting
- Cell Membrane – orange frosting
Tip! Simply add red coloring to the remaining yellow frosting.
- Ribosomes – white candy melts
- Golgi body – Airhead Extreme candy belts
- Nucleus – Large round lollipops
- Rough ER – Sour gummy worms
- Smooth ER – Red Mike & Ike
- Nuclear Membrane – Orange frosting
Tip! Put some frosting in a plastic baggie and snip off the tip to pipe the frosting around the nucleus
If you make this cell cake, let us know in the comments if you used different candies for any of the elements.
- Mitochondria – Red gummy bears
- Vacuole = White Jelly Beans
We found almost all the candy at our local Walmart store.
The large lollipop was by the cash register.
Another good place to check would be Walgreens.
They have a large selection of unusual and hard-to-find candies.
How easy was the project?
We did have to bake a cake so the project was not the easiest.
Baking the cake in a glass bowl was something new that we’d never tried but it really turned out well.
If our bowl would have been the same side as our other cake pan, I think it would have been easier.
Our frosting job was not perfect – it’s a bit difficult to frost the cake without the yellow and the orange mixing.
How successful was the project?
Emily got full credit for the assignment.
We checked off all the requirements.
Our cake was plenty big to serve half the class.
Everything was appropriately labeled – we used printer labels affixed to toothpicks.
All the candy looked approximately like animal cell parts.
If you try it, let me know how it goes for you.
Here are some other awesome school projects for you to try:
- Adventures of Flat Stanley
- Ocean Biome in a Shoebox
- Barbados Coconut Turnovers
How to Make an Animal Cell Cake
Yield: 1 cake
Materials
- 1 cake mix + ingredients listed on the box
- 1 recipe Buttercream frosting
- yellow gel food coloring
- orange gel food coloring
- blue or green gel food coloring
- Airhead Extreme candy belts
- Tootsie pops
- white candy melts
- sour gummy worms or Twizzlers
- Red Mike & Ike candy
- Red gummy bears
- white jelly beans
Tools
- 8-inch round cake pan
- 8-inch diameter oven-safe bowl
- toothpicks
- 2-inch labels
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix up a box of your favorite cake mix according to the package directions.
- Grease an 8-inch cake pan with non-stick cooking spray and pour in about 1/3 of the cake batter.
- Grease an 8-inch diameter bowl that is oven-safe and pour in the remaining 2/3 of the cake batter.
- Bake the cakes according to the instructions for an 8-inch pan, usually about 28-32 minutes. Check both cakes for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the centers. The cakes are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs. The cake baked in the bowl will probably need to be baked 6-10 minutes longer than the one in the cake pan. Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes then remove the cakes from the pan and bowl to a sheet of waxed paper. Cool cakes completely.
- Level the flat cake using a serrated knife. Level the flat side of the domed cake, if needed. Cut the domed cake in half across the middle.
- Mix up the Buttercream frosting.
- Divide the frosting. Put half of the frosting in a bowl and dye it orange using a few drops of orange food coloring. Remove about a half cup of the remaining white frosting and dye it blue or green. Tint the remaining frosting yellow.
- Place the flat cake on a serving platter. Place the domed cake toward the top of the flat cake. The domed cake will be smaller than the flat cake and this is okay. Spread the yellow frosting on the top of the flat cake that is visible and the cut side of the domed cake that is adjacent to the flat cake. The yellow area represents the inside of your cell, the cytoplasm.
- Spread the orange frosting on the top of the domed cake and all along the outside of the cake. The orange area represents the cell membrane.
- Use a pair of scissors or a sharp knife to cut off the end of the Tootsie Roll Pop stick, leaving about 1 inch. Insert the lollipop into the center of the cell where the flat cake and the domed cake meet. This is the nucleus.
- Spoon the blue or green frosting into a plastic zip-top baggie then snip off the tip and use it to pipe a ring of frosting around the lollipop. This is the nuclear membrane.
- Take an Airhead Extreme candy belt and gently fold it into a zig-zag pattern. Place it in the yellow portion of the cake for the Golgi body.
- Place white jelly beans (substitution: white candy melts) on the cake for ribosomes.
- Cut Twizzlers into 1 1/2-inch pieces and place them on the cake for the endoplasmic reticulum. If you need to identify rough ER and smooth ER, you can use sour gummy worms for the rough ER and red Mike & Ike candy for the smooth ER.
- Place red gummy bears on the cake for mitochondria.
- Place gummy Skittles on the cake for vacuole.
- Create labels either by hand-writing the cell parts on white printer labels or by printing the cell parts on a piece of paper. Affix the labels onto toothpicks.
Notes
Most glass bowls or metal bowls are oven-safe but be sure to check yours to be sure.
For the cell cake in the photo, I designed the labels in Microsoft Excel and added borders. I printed two copies of the labels, cut them out, and glued them to a toothpick using a hot glue gun to make a double-sided label.
As expected, I went a little extra and used self-stick laminating sheets and laminated the labels while they were on the toothpick. (Just used scissors to trim the plastic around the toothpick. It wasn't perfect, but the final project looked fantastic.
I also made a similar label with the student's name, date, and type of cell to fulfill the requirements for our particular assignment.
We decorated the cake on an 8-inch cake board and then put it into a pie carrier for transport. It fit perfectly in the pie carrier, but the labels got pressed down a tiny bit and the large label with the student's name and type had to be added once he got to school. (I put two toothpicks into the bottom of the large label to keep it steady.)
Recommended Products
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TWIZZLERS Twists Assorted Fruit Flavored Rainbow Chewy Candy, Low Fat, 12.4 Ounce (Pack of 6)
Americolor Soft Gel Paste Food Color, 4.5-Ounce, Lemon Yellow
Americolor Soft Gel Paste Food Color, 4.5-Ounce, Orange
Tootsie Roll Pops Assorted Flavors 6.0 oz (Pack of 2)
(Video) Biology Baking: Animal Cell CakeHaribo Goldbears Gummi Candy, 3 Pound Bag
SKITTLES Gummy Candy Original and Wild Berry Sharing Size Bags Bundle - Includes 11.6 Total Oz
Airheads Xtremes Belts Sweetly Sour Candy Halloween Treat Non Melting Bulk Movie Theater and Party Bag, Rainbow Berry, 36 Ounce,( Pack of 12)
Avery 73601 Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets, 9 x 12 Inch, Permanent Adhesive, 50 Clear Laminating Sheets
Pyrex Prepware 1-1/2-Quart Glass Mixing Bowl
Did you make this project?
Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram
FAQs
How do you make edible plant cell cake? ›
- 1 yellow sheet cake.
- 2 cups green frosting.
- 1 sugar cookie.
- 1 lifesavers gummy.
- 2 fruit by the foot.
- 1 fruit roll up, cut into an oval.
- 1 container gushers.
- ¼ cup green jolly ranchers.
If you need to identify rough ER and smooth ER, you can use sour gummy worms for the rough ER and red Mike & Ike candy for the smooth ER. Place red gummy bears on the cake for mitochondria. Place gummy Skittles on the cake for vacuole.
What can I use to make an animal cell model? ›- Colorful animal cell picture.
- Styrofoam balls.
- Playdough (or modeling clay)
- Cardboard for base.
- Pipe cleaners.
- T-Pins.
- Duct tape or regular tape.
- Glue or adhesive.
| Cell Component | Suggested "Building Material" |
|---|---|
| Mitochondria | 4 hot tamale candies |
| Vacuoles | 4 chocolate covered raisins |
| Plant Cell central vacuole | 1 large white marshmallow |
| Nucleus | 1 pink gumball |
Spread a thick layer of white frosting over the surface of a large sugar cookie using a spatula. This will serve as cytoplasm. Line the top edge of the cookie with Sour Punch rope candy to form the cell membrane. Press a strawberry puff into the center of the frosted cookie, as the nucleus.
What candy looks like a lysosome? ›Candy cell 1. Mitochondria: circus peanuts 2. Cytoskeleton/Centrioles/DNA: licorice 3. Lysosomes: peanut butter/ chocolate balls 4… | Circulacion fetal, Circulacion.
What candy looks like a ribosome? ›Green chlorophyll is typically the dominant pigment in chloroplasts. Therefore, green jelly beans or green flat candy wafers are fine choices to represent chloroplasts.
What candy to use for an edible animal cell project? ›Suggested candy for an edible cell model:
Air Head Bites = vacuoles. Air Heads Xtremes = rough endoplasmic reticulum. Sour gummy worms = Golgi apparatus. Candy disc sprinkles = ribosomes.
We used eight different types of candies to represent eight different organelles inside a cell. The Cytoplasm is represented by frosting. It is the jelly-like substance that surrounds all the organelles in the cell. The Cell Membrane is represented by red licorice.
What's in candy that dogs can't have? ›
The biggest concern with candy (that isn't chocolate) is the risk of the ingredient xylitol. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol commonly used as an artificial sweetener and is toxic to pets.
How do you make fake cells? ›A synthetic cell is created by synthesizing a genome and installing it into a recipient cytoplasm. Original components of the recipient cytoplasm are replaced in early divisions and the synthetic cell takes on a phenotype determined by the synthetic genome.
What color is a animal cell? ›Cells are mostly colourless and transparent. However, red blood cells that are present in higher vertebrates contain a high amount of iron that gives them deep-red colour. The animal cells appear blue when they are stained with dyes such as trypan blue or methylene blue.
Are all animals made of animal cells? ›Animal cells are the building blocks that make up all living organisms in the kingdom Animalia. They give bodies structure, absorb nutrients to convert to energy, and help animals move. They also contain all the hereditary material of an organism and can make copies of themselves.
What solution is best for a plant cell? ›In the case of a plant cell, however, a hypotonic extracellular solution is actually ideal. The plasma membrane can only expand to the limit of the rigid cell wall, so the cell won't burst, or lyse.
How do you make a cell model out of household items? ›Open the plastic bag. Place the toothbrush heads, an egg, a small bouncy ball, two rubber bands the halved nuts and a small handful of peppercorns into the bag. The egg serves as the plant cell's vacuole, the bouncy ball is the nucleus, rubber bands are the endoplasmic reticulum and the peppercorns replicate ribosomes.
What is needed for plant cells to make food? ›Plants use water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to make sugar and oxygen. During photosynthesis radiant energy or solar energy or light energy is transferred into chemical energy in the form of sugar (glucose). You already know that during photosynthesis plants make their own food.
Is Golgi body jelly like? ›A stack of small flat sacs formed by membranes inside the cell's cytoplasm (gel-like fluid). The Golgi body prepares proteins and lipid (fat) molecules for use in other places inside and outside the cell.
What household item is similar to mitochondria? ›The electric box that provides electricity for all the appliances in the kitchen, is like a mitochondria provides energy for the cell.
Do eggs have mitochondrial DNA? ›Mitochondria are special among cellular machines in that they have their own DNA, called mitochondrial or mtDNA. Unlike the much larger DNA sets, or genomes, that reside in the nuclei of cells, mtDNA is only passed on through the mothers' egg cells.
Can animal cells make sugar? ›
Cellular Respiration and Mass
Plants form glucose by photosynthesis and animals get glucose by breaking down the food they eat. During cellular respiration, glucose combines with oxygen to release energy and to form carbon dioxide and water.
Slip the nectarine half with the pit into the center of the Jell-O as the nucleus. Put some sugar-coated and smooth gummy worms around one side of the nucleus as rough and smooth ER (endoplasmic reticulum). Push a few gumdrops around the nucleus as centrosomes and scatter sixlets through the Jell-O as lysosomes.
How is a cell like a cookie factory? ›Let's compare a cell to a cookie factory. A cookie factory has many parts. The cytoplasm of a cell has many organelles. Figure 7.6 shows a fictional cookie factory.
What candy looks like centrioles? ›Candy cell 1. Mitochondria: circus peanuts 2. Cytoskeleton/Centrioles/DNA: licorice 3.
What candy for centrioles? ›Be careful, you can get lost in there. Jolly ranchers hard candy: : These hard candy work well for the centrioles, which are usually found in pairs at right angles to each other and get to work when the cell begins to divide (Mitosis).
What household item is similar to Golgi apparatus? ›The Golgi Apparatus is like a UPS truck because the golgi apparatus packages and ships proteins where they are needed like a UPS truck packages and ships items where they are needed.
What would ribosomes be in a bedroom? ›The pillows are like Ribosomes because they are close to the nucleus and synthesize proteins.
What is the jelly like organelle? ›Cytoplasm
Cytoplasm is the gelatinous liquid that fills the inside of a cell. It is composed of water, salts, and various organic molecules. Some intracellular organelles, such the nucleus and mitochondria, are enclosed by membranes that separate them from the cytoplasm.
The eukaryotic 80S ribosome is comprised of two unequal subunits that contain four different rRNAs and around 80 ribosomal proteins. Eukaryotic 40S subunit contains 18S rRNA and 33 proteins and the 60S subunit contains 25S, 5S, 5.8rRNA, and 47 ribosomal proteins.
What are 8 kinds of candy that comes in circular pieces? ›| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| 8 kinds of candy that comes in circular pieces | lots of choices: M&Ms, Skittles, York Peppermint Patties, LifeSavers,Reese's Pieces, Sweet Tarts, Whoppers, Gobstoppers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, etc. |
What looks like a ribosome? ›
A ribosome itself looks like a little hamburger bun. It's made of two subunits: a big one (the top bun) and a small one (the bottom bun).
Is chloroplast jelly like? ›Chloroplast is the organelles found in plants, it is the site where photosynthesis takes place. It converts light energy into chemical energy. 4. Cytoplasm is enclosed by the cell membrane composed of thick solution and has jelly like structure.
How is baking a cake like a cell? ›The cell membrane is found in both plant and animal cells for the making of a cake the cell membrane would be the fwould be the outside of the unfrosted cake which makes the cake stay together. much like the real cell membrane on a cell which holds the cell together and makes sure nothing bad gets in as best as it can.
What candy looks like a cell wall? ›| Cell Component | Suggested "Building Material" |
|---|---|
| Vacuoles | 4 chocolate covered raisins |
| Plant Cell central vacuole | 1 large white marshmallow |
| Nucleus | 1 pink gumball |
| Cell wall | a sheet of green fruit roll up |
Sour gummy worms = Golgi apparatus. Candy disc sprinkles = ribosomes.
What cell looks like pancakes? ›The Golgi apparatus or Golgi complex is a flattened, layered, sac-like organelle that looks like a stack of pancakes. The Golgi body modifies & packages proteins and carbohydrates into membrane-bound vesicles for "export" from the cell.
What cell is like jello? ›cytoplasm - the jellylike material outside the cell nucleus in which the organelles are located. It is represented by the gelatin.
What is the jelly-like cell called? ›Cytoplasm
Cytoplasm is the gelatinous liquid that fills the inside of a cell. It is composed of water, salts, and various organic molecules. Some intracellular organelles, such the nucleus and mitochondria, are enclosed by membranes that separate them from the cytoplasm.
All you require is an edible printing-compatible printer that has edible ink cartridges, unlike the usual ones. You just have to connect the printer to your computer, load it with edible sheets, hit print, and voila, your edible image is all set to be designed on your cake! Pretty simple, isn't it?
How do they put images on cakes? ›Instead of paper, the image is printed on edible “icing paper” or “rice paper” sheets. These special sheets are 100% edible, non-toxic, and safe to eat. The paper is made from a mixture of cornflour, potatoes, and rice. The edible ink used in the printer is made from food colouring.