Robot cake
How Chat GPT saved my hunt for a birthday cake
Having recently turned forty-five, I’m long overdue my midlife crisis, but I can easily imagine it would include some form of artificial intelligence. Though I don’t have a science background (does social science count?) I’ve always been interested in and fascinated with technology, which often finds its way into my stories.
So, when trying to procure a good birthday cake, and failing to find the one I liked, I jumped at the chance of tasking ChatGPT with providing a recipe.
After testing it with a few easy philosophical questions about the future of humanity and such, I asked ChatGPT for a cake recipe. My brief was simple, I wanted a chocolate cake for two that would involve oranges, dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa content) and wasn’t too sweet.
ChatGPT needed under a minute to come up with this:
Sure, here's a recipe for a dark chocolate and orange cake for two people, with a focus on 70% cocoa chocolate and a lighter touch on sugar and sweetness.
Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (70% cocoa)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 2 ounces dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped
Instructions:
1 Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C) and grease a 6-inch cake pan.
2 In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3 In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4 Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
5 Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, alternating with the orange juice, until just combined.
6 Fold in the orange zest and chopped chocolate.
7 Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top.
8 Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9 Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.
This cake is a rich and indulgent treat, with the dark chocolate and orange complementing each other beautifully. The orange juice adds a touch of natural sweetness and freshness, while the 70% cocoa chocolate provides a deep, intense chocolate flavor. The reduced amount of sugar in the recipe keeps the cake light on sweetness, making it a perfect dessert for those who prefer a less sugary treat. Enjoy!
Reader, I made it. Twice. Because I didn’t trust it to be exactly what I imagined, I’d baked a test cake a few days before.
In hindsight, I could have refined my brief and asked for ingredients in grams and Celsius and specified the taste of orange should be strong and prominent, but all in all ChatGPT came up more or less with exactly the cake I wanted.
Admittedly, the procedure needed some tweaking and I struggled to ‘cream’ two tablespoons of butter and sugar, so I melted the butter instead, but all in all, it was a solid recipe.
To remedy the mild orange taste, I topped the second cake with Donna Hay’s orange syrup topping recipe, but kept the cake recipe as it was. This is the result:
The cake tasted great and was just big enough. I also might keep the birthday cake week as my new tradition.
Despite this successful experiment, I don’t think ChatGPT is anywhere near pushing creators out of our jobs, and since there’s a lot more to say about this, I’ll follow it up in a separate post.