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Description
So, I get strange ideas sometimes. Typically the most unusual ones either require materials I don't have or involve stuff I can't, personally, do. This should have been one of them.

Obviously, it wasn't. In the interests of full disclosure, then, let it be known that credit for this 'masterpiece' needs to be split rather equally between my mother and I, as for whatever reason she let herself be dragged into it.
_____________

Inspiration:
I spotted this (much more professional) Rubik's cube cake [link] one day, thought it was a nifty idea but nothing I'd be able to manage, and carried on with my day without a second thought. A day or two later, I ran across this ghastly gooey monstrosity [link] and, despite my twitching, noted that the tiling idea could be fun. And remembered the other cake. And realized that classic M&Ms are the perfect colors for a Rubik's cube. And recalled that my brother the geek was due for a birthday celebration shortly. I think you can figure out where the muses promptly headed.

Materials Used:
--Whipped cream cake
--Generic sugar/butter frosting
--Mini chocolate chips
--Mini M&Ms
--Rubik's cube

Process:
We actually did a test run when I was home a few weeks before the big day. It wasn't a full cake, but it let us figure out how many M&Ms we would need, what size we wanted to use, whether the cake was any good, etc. Once we'd planned out the proportions, we scrambled one of the brother's cubes until we got a random pattern that had five sides with no colors directly next to themselves. This was harder than it sounds! We then calculated the numbers we needed of each color M&M, separated them all out, and labeled everything according to the sides of the cube. Because yes, it did have to be a valid pattern. We're all special like that.

For the cake base, we found what looked like a decent recipe for a large cake pan, converted it to a gluten-free recipe, and cut it in thirds. Two thirds were baked (separately) in bread pans, one and a half of which were used to make the cake. The three halves used were layered with frosting.

The cake couldn't be frosted all at once, as we found in our trial run that it would dry out before we could get all the M&Ms in place. We ended up frosting two opposite sides, decorating those, frosting and decorating the other two sides, and finishing off the top at the end. An unforeseen complication with this method was that the frosting had started sagging on the first two sides in particular by the time we got the top done. We ended up storing it in the freezer to help stall that. Fortunately, it was easy enough to fill in the gaps with more chocolate chips. But trust me when I say that the other three sides don't need to be seen.
_____________

Notes:
--It would have been much easier to use strips of licorice to define the squares. Licorice is not, however, gluten-free, and I refuse to bake something I can't eat (especially when the recipient can't eat it either).
--I am not all that fond of chocolate or sugar for the sake of sugar, and even less so of M&Ms. This particular dessert had an excess of all three. So yes, I laid immediate claim to the center piece. That said, under all the chocolate and the frosting was actually a very good cake.
--The brother didn't know he was getting this, but the need for secrecy was rather less than planned because the lazy bum slept until five o'clock at night, by which time we had been done and had everything cleaned up for a good four hours. We got our revenge while he slept by hiding all his presents around the house with vague clues on post-its, the last of which took him to the cake.

Description
So, I get strange ideas sometimes. Typically the most unusual ones either require materials I don't have or involve stuff I can't, personally, do. This should have been one of them.

Obviously, it wasn't. In the interests of full disclosure, then, let it be known that credit for this 'masterpiece' needs to be split rather equally between my mother and I, as for whatever reason she let herself be dragged into it.
_____________

Inspiration:
I spotted this (much more professional) Rubik's cube cake [link] one day, thought it was a nifty idea but nothing I'd be able to manage, and carried on with my day without a second thought. A day or two later, I ran across this ghastly gooey monstrosity [link] and, despite my twitching, noted that the tiling idea could be fun. And remembered the other cake. And realized that classic M&Ms are the perfect colors for a Rubik's cube. And recalled that my brother the geek was due for a birthday celebration shortly. I think you can figure out where the muses promptly headed.

Materials Used:
--Whipped cream cake
--Generic sugar/butter frosting
--Mini chocolate chips
--Mini M&Ms
--Rubik's cube

Process:
We actually did a test run when I was home a few weeks before the big day. It wasn't a full cake, but it let us figure out how many M&Ms we would need, what size we wanted to use, whether the cake was any good, etc. Once we'd planned out the proportions, we scrambled one of the brother's cubes until we got a random pattern that had five sides with no colors directly next to themselves. This was harder than it sounds! We then calculated the numbers we needed of each color M&M, separated them all out, and labeled everything according to the sides of the cube. Because yes, it did have to be a valid pattern. We're all special like that.

For the cake base, we found what looked like a decent recipe for a large cake pan, converted it to a gluten-free recipe, and cut it in thirds. Two thirds were baked (separately) in bread pans, one and a half of which were used to make the cake. The three halves used were layered with frosting.

The cake couldn't be frosted all at once, as we found in our trial run that it would dry out before we could get all the M&Ms in place. We ended up frosting two opposite sides, decorating those, frosting and decorating the other two sides, and finishing off the top at the end. An unforeseen complication with this method was that the frosting had started sagging on the first two sides in particular by the time we got the top done. We ended up storing it in the freezer to help stall that. Fortunately, it was easy enough to fill in the gaps with more chocolate chips. But trust me when I say that the other three sides don't need to be seen.
_____________

Notes:
--It would have been much easier to use strips of licorice to define the squares. Licorice is not, however, gluten-free, and I refuse to bake something I can't eat (especially when the recipient can't eat it either).
--I am not all that fond of chocolate or sugar for the sake of sugar, and even less so of M&Ms. This particular dessert had an excess of all three. So yes, I laid immediate claim to the center piece. That said, under all the chocolate and the frosting was actually a very good cake.
--The brother didn't know he was getting this, but the need for secrecy was rather less than planned because the lazy bum slept until five o'clock at night, by which time we had been done and had everything cleaned up for a good four hours. We got our revenge while he slept by hiding all his presents around the house with vague clues on post-its, the last of which took him to the cake.