AGaaaaahhhh please help before my head explodes.

How the frig do you calculate the size of a heart, circle and a paisley shape that have a surface area of 4 cubic centimeters.

And whilst I'm ranting who the heck wants a cake that small. I don't mind making it if they can do the calculation but I can't fathom how to work it out.

Please *on bended knee here* please tell me the measurements of each side *crys*

ABarbara, you SHOULD enter that compition..

Mel, thank you. Yes, it is quite exciting. And those cakes are fab!!!

AMmm, still not sure, he's really hard and I dont have a clue how yo do him.

Siany what on earth are you making?

Good luck with your move Bashini, at least its gonna be a fab day.

ASiany, I am not sure but you measure it from one side to the other horizontily from the middle of the tin?

ASiany, so sorry, I had trouble counting the spoons of calpol by tge time my daughter went to bed!

Mel I love those cakes! My sister's 40 next week, I wish I'd thought of something like that for her!

Nanny, rolling pins at dawn, the Argus is my local paper too! Only joking, you absolutely must enter, you are soooooo good enough!

AThanks Barbara!!

I just had a look who Darth Maul is. Are you going to do just the face? If so, I would start with an oval shaped cake and then carve the face. It might be helpful if you get a picture of it and make it to the size of the tin you are going to use. And many more pictures so you can see all the details.

AYour all so kind, but really? Could I ave picked a more intricate flamming cake to make?

Well luck has it Bashini, my little chappie has the exact mask, I'm no good at carving though, but then I haven't done it before.

AIt's for my college assessment. From googling a cubic centimetre has 1 cm on each side which means it could have 4 cm on each side so technically could have. Surface area of 16 cams but that seems massive as they are meant to be small. Oh gosh I'm confused lol

AOk I'm just off to bed but Siany, something that is 4 cubic cm is that not 2x2x2cm? Or am I getting confused now. I have no idea what you're trying to work out the size of though haha

AOr I actually like the green cake with his face on there, or is that playing safe? Arrrghh, what am I saying, thats hard enough?

The only thing that worries me is the day before I have another cake to make, its for a hen party where she want a 3d dress on the cake, not to difficult I dont think but will it all be abit too much? I'm doing everything in my power to put myself off aren't I?

AYes nanny you can and you must!

Siany I tried to go back a page to read your post so I could ask my husband but I can't, don't know if it's my phone or this site but all I'm getting is an advert. I'll try again in the morning. I reckon Kathy's daughter might know actually, maybe you could PM her?

Off to bed now, night all.

ANight all. Work for me tomorrow, so dont go having all this fun without me OK?

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3221883/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

So going by this mathematical equation it would have 4cm in each side to be 4 cubic centimetres. Which is quite large. Well, it's a lot larger than I thought.

I have to make 12 cakes with a maximum size of 4 cubic cms each (or the equivalent surface area) for my college exam to pass my ********** course.

ANo ignore that siany 2x2x2 is 8 cubic cm doh! I think 4 would then be 1.6cm. 1.6x1.6x1.6 is 4. 1 cubic cm. That's the closest I could get but seems very precise! Am I even helping...

ADoes that make any sense. In my head I pictured those little cm cube things and thought that 2x2 on each side would make 4 but obviously not because that would be a 3D cube. Because you only want 4, and not something much simpler like 8, you have to have less than 2 whole cubes on each side but more than 1.

Just messing with the calculator I got 1.6 as coming out at 4.1 cubic cm is that close enough?

If each side has 4 that's 4x4x4 which would be 16 cubic cm so that's way too big

AOh God, I'm so glad I just knock dolls heads off, I cant follow that!

AOh yes @dayscakes could your daughter she's any light on my brain killing problem. I'm struggling here lol

ASee that would be more the size I was thinking sugaluva but if you look at the pic I put on it says the cube is 1 cubic cm not 4 which is why I'm confused.

AIf it doesn't have to be an actual cube shape siany you could do them 4cmx4cm and 1cm tall that would be 4 cubic cm still and equivalent in surface area.

AThat could work as I don't need them to be tall but wider works for better top decoration.

ANo it's not cube shaped. My shapes are a heart, a circle & a paisley (like comma) shape

AI looked at the pic and I kind of get it now. I think you have to remember that because it's 3D you have an extra layer of cubes. Maybe if you have something like sugar cubes in your cupboard you could pretend they're 1cm square and see what I mean. If you put 4 sugar cubes by 4 sugar on the table and then made them 4 sugar cubes high as well you would end up need 16 sugar cubes in total - so it would be 16 cubic cm. To only need 4 sugar cubes you would have to Cut them slightly which is why it gets confusing but 1.6 sugar cubes on all 3 dimensions would use 4 whole sugar cubes in the end.

Gah does that made sense haha?

AIn that case go for 1cm tall and roughly 4x4cm on the top. Just if you're doing a heart shape make the fat top of the heart bigger than 4cm to account for the smaller part of the heart. And same for the other shapes.

My head hurts now...

AThank you sugaluva my head hurts to. I've put the cakes away now and I'm going to make pastillage playing cards. I need my brain to stop having to work for a bit lol

AMorning all.:-)

Siany I asked my husband this morning, he explained first then demonstated! [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3222082/width/200/height/400[/IMG] This is a cut up oxo box. It's a little over 4cms but the nearest thing we had to it. You could probably use it as a template because you'd be cutting shapes out of your cube which would make it smaller anyway. I'll see if I can add the other pics, if not I'll put them on a new post. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3222083/width/200/height/400[/IMG] This is the box re-assembled. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3222084/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AApparently 4 cubic centimetres is a cube with each side measuring 4x4. And I've just had a little lesson on theoretical physics btw, thanks Siany!

AThank you Maisie. See that was my understanding from what I read last night but a friend of mine said that makes 16cm3 which just confuses the heck out of me.

I think that what you have said is correct but my friend (who also has to make these cakes as is from college) has mirrored what sugaluva has said and also pointed out that there can't be an equivalent surface area as by definition cubic measurement is by volume not surface area so they are not the same.

Personally I think City & Guilds have a lot to answer for hahaha

Thank you very much for your help.

AIt is confusing! My husband said the volume of a cube is the inside of it's area. The open oxo box is 2 dimensional, the measurements of that is it's area. Fold it into a cube and it's 3 dimensional, ie each each 4cm side =4cm cubed.

ABtw from what I remember, sugarluva was right with her sugarlump theory, gota go, good luck! :-)

AAww I thought you would have this solved by siany it must be driving you mad. I actually really want to know the answer too haha.

I suppose it depends on what they're referring to by cubic cm. Cubic cm is a measure of volume not surface area (it's what used to be used before we changed to ml and such) so in that sense if you want the volume of the cake to be 4cm3 then the sides will be really small. But making a cake 1.6x1.6x1.6 is crazily small so they're probably referring to the overall size of the surfaces. I'd go for just make each size roughly 4cm X 4cm as I understand how you can argue that that too makes sense.

The only thing I don't get about the oxo box thing is if each side is 4x4 then each side is 16cm squared. Add all 6 sides of a cube together and that's a massive surface area (16x6 whatever that is) so how does that relate to the 4cm3 thing?

I'm so confused now...