Harvard Students Invent Aerosol Cake Batter

The aerosol can is one of the fastest and most fun ways to deliver food into one's mouth, and now it could be set to revolutionize the cake world, thanks to a brilliant Harvard student with a crazy idea.

According to the Boston Globe, Harvard freshman John McCallum was working on a final project for his Science & Cooking class and trying to figure out "ways to eat more cake" when he noticed someone spraying whipped cream out of a can and had one heck of a Eureka moment. He wondered if he could use whipped cream can technology to dispense aerated cake batter that would rise without the need for baking soda or baking powder. He tried it, and it worked.

McCallum and classmate Brooke Nowakowski perfected the recipe in a dorm kitchen, and are currently in the process of patenting the invention they call Spray Cake.

The spray cake is more than just a novelty, too. In addition to allowing people to spray cake batter directly into their mouths, Spray Cake batter allows a person to cook up a cake in an instant. A single cupcake bakes in the microwave in 30 seconds, and a full cake bakes in about a minute.  The cakes also bake more quickly in a traditional oven than conventional cake recipes, because the batter has essentially already risen. That means a person can make a cake of any size on a moment's impulse. 

"You can simply pull it off the shelf, make one cupcake, then put it back in the fridge and it won't go bad," Nowakowski said. 

Joanne Chang of Boston's Flour Bakery even tasted the cake and gave it a thumbs up.