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Robots that can 3D print cakes are here, but theyre not restaurant-ready just yet
Scientists have built robots that can 3D print real cake, but it might be some time before they land in your local restaurants.
The scale and quality of modern 3D printers continue to amaze people around the world, with one of the most interesting ways to use these printers being the cooking (or rather, building) of edible food. Whilst scientists recently made a robot that can 3D print real cakes, it might be a few years before they become restaurant-ready.
3D-printed edible slices of cake are here if youre hungry
A team of researchers from Columbia University in the City of New York retrofitted a 3D printer with nozzles designed to spread seven different select ingredients (more than any other printed food) into an edible cheesecake-esque dessert.
To make the cake, the team printed soft ingredients like jelly and banana pur�e inside harder ingredients like peanut butter and Nutella, before encasing them in a paste made from graham cracker dust.
The robot then broiled the crust with a laser and added a tasty-looking cherry glaze; a time lapse video of the 3D printing process was uploaded to the Columbia Engineering YouTube channel, see below:
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Dr Jonathan Blutinger, a mechanical engineer working out of Columbia Engineerings Creative Machines Lab, told New Scientist: When you bite into it, you kind of feel the flavors hit you in different waves. And I think thats a function of the layering inside of the actual structure.
In a separate interview, the team noted that Were not Michelin chefs but acknowledged It definitely tasted like something I hadnt tried before – I rather enjoyed it, but its not a conventional mix.
These cakes arent quite restaurant-ready just yet
Whilst these 3D-printed slices of cake are reminiscent of something youd see in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or Star Trek, it will probably be some time before 3D printing chefs make their way into restaurants and bakeries around the world.
Each slice of cake took around 30 minutes to be made, and the printers themselves needed to be updated with specific recipes that might not be available commercially for some time.
Speaking on access to recipes being a potential sticking point for consumers, Dr Blutinger noted if this were to hit the market, its like having an iPod without any MP3 files.
So there needs to be a place where you can download recipes, create your own recipes, and get some inspiration for what you can actually do with this machine in order for it to really take off in a big way.
It might turn out to be more useful in restaurants and cafeterias where the loading of ingredients and software programs could be done during slack hours, explained Simon Fraser University Professor Andrew Feenberg to The Guardian.
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What do you think about 3D-printed cakes; would you swap a tasty hand-made dessert for one built by robots?
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