Chef Duff Goldman made a moon-shaped cake for NASA’s Taste of Space

Duff Goldman has thought surprisingly a lot about baking cakes in space.

The founder of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, made famous on the Food Network show “Ace of Cakes,” Goldman is bringing a space-themed cake to the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex “A Taste of Space: Celebrity” for the third year. Editorial” culinary evening. Goldman, a self-described “lifelong science and space geek,” called the annual event in Florida one of his most unique experiences.

“Here I am an adult, and I have to go to the Kennedy Space Center and cook food, meet the astronauts and all the people who work there. For me personally, it’s really such a pleasure because that’s all I do. I’ve loved my whole life,” Goldman told CollectSPACE.com.

This year’s event took place on Saturday evening (November 2) after demonstrating cooking techniques alongside fellow celebrity chefs John Ashton (TV Dinners) and Amanda Freytag (Chopper), as well as former NASA astronauts Bob Cabana. Jose Hernandez and Janet Kavandi, Goldman, unveiled a cake inspired by the large rotating NASA logo at the entrance to the visitor complex.

a man in a white T-shirt stands next to a large spherical cake similar to the famous NASA cake "meatball" logo

It took six cake artists about eight hours to create the rotating 30-inch (76-centimeter) cake sphere, using fondant, jelly paste and modeling chocolate, as well as hand-dusted sugar for the nebulae at its base. (Image credit: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex)

“Our cake this year is dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the moon landing. The cake itself is a giant sphere and it spins on a motor,” Goldman said. “One side of the sphere is the NASA logo, and the other is the Moon.”

Connected: Photos of space food: what astronauts eat in orbit

On top of the Moon is a hand-sculpted chocolate astronaut.

“Underneath (the sphere) is what should look like empty space. That’s why it’s black and has a lot of stars,” Goldman said. “And probably my favorite part of the cake was when we pulled out the sugar and created nebulae.”

It’s easier in space

It took the six bakers at Charm City Cakes about eight hours to make the cake this year. Unlike the Artemis Space Launch System (SLS) and the Perseverance rover that Goldman unveiled at events the past two years, the Moon’s shape presented challenges in defying gravity.

“When you’re designing a 3D cake, any part of the cake that has empty space underneath should use something for structural support, such as foam, wood or PVC. Something that can support its own weight, because the cake isn’t “Don’t do that,” Goldman told CollectSPACE.

So in the case of the Moon, everything below the equator must be made from a support structure, and everything above it is a piece of cake.

And the thing is that it rotates.

Outdoor sculpture of a spherical blue and white NASA spacecraft "meatball" logo

This year’s “Taste of Space” cake was inspired in part by the NASA logo at the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex in Florida. (Image credit: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex)

“Every time you spin something, even if it’s very slowly, your difficulty level increases exponentially. Cakes really don’t like to move,” Goldman said. “The cake is very fluffy and the only thing supporting all the weight is the gluten. When you start adding movement, any vibration to it, you start to destroy the structural integrity of the gluten. Therefore, any movement is risky.”

According to Goldman, both problems could be solved more easily if the cake were prepared in the microgravity of space.

“This particular cake would be easier to bake in space than on Earth because the liquid in zero gravity forms a perfect sphere,” Goldman said. “Cake batter has surface tension, just like water. So if we were in space, I could make a bunch of cake batter and then very carefully slide it inside the oven. Then you turn on the oven and get a perfect sphere. cake, which can then be decorated. Then you won’t need the support structure that we need on Earth.”

“Also, since you are in zero gravity, you will be able to spin the pie indefinitely without a motor because there is no friction,” he said.

Serving the moon

“I think I can do it in space. The challenge here is to convince NASA that this science is worth pursuing. I will volunteer my time to become the first astro-pastry chef,” Goldman said with a laugh.

NASA would also need to approve the furnace design for such a project. Due to safety concerns and power shortages, only a food warmer was installed on the International Space Station, with the exception of a small oven launched and retired in 2019 to attempt baking chocolate chip cookies.

Close-up of a spherical moon-shaped cake with an astronaut in a space suit on it.

The flip side of chef Duff Goldman’s cake at this year’s Taste of Space: Celebrity Edition at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is the Moon, in honor of the 55th anniversary of the first moon landing. (Image credit: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex)

Returning to A Taste of Space, in years past, Goldman’s cake served—and was served—as dessert for the evening. Cupcakes and other baked goods took the cake’s place on Saturday so it could be purchased the next day at the Taste of Space: Celebrity Chef Ice Cream Social, a new event where families can take photos with Goldman and the cake and make their own signature ice cream.

“We just wanted as many people as possible to see it,” Goldman says sadly. “But on social media, we’re going to address that.”

“If you think about it, you get to the point of doing something like that and then you don’t get the cake, then what’s the point?” – he said.

Chef Duff Goldman made a moon-shaped cake for NASA’s Taste of Space

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