And who is this slice for? ©CC Thomas Bresson
They are made of plastic, metal, porcelain, are often tacky and sometimes very ugly. The charms of the twelfth night cake are back between our teeth. If cooking one’s twelfth night cake is quite simple, can one make one’s charm with a 3D printer?
We approve of this recipe for a home-made twelfth night cake.
On Thingiverse, Youmagine and 3Dcults, sharing websites or on-line sale of models printable in 3D, searching the word “charm” does not give anything. However, it is possible to slip into one’s twelfth night cake a home-made charm. The main thing is to do it at the right time: bakers insert the plastic charms (the ugliest) in the cakes after baking. Porcelain or ceramic charms on the contrary can be inserted beforehand. Why? It’s a question of thermostat. In order to bake a twelfth night cake, the oven is heated to over 200 degrees. Now, at these temperatures, common plastic melts. However, porcelain is cooked at 900 degrees and ceramic at more than 1,000 degrees. Have no fear! They can go in the oven.
It is therefore possible to add a charm printed in 3D in PLA or ABS after baking. The most commonly used materials in 3D printing for the general public are PLA, cornstarch based plastic, and ABS, petrol based. Beware of the toxicity of these plastic charms or the use of acetone to smooth out the prints, even though the risk is more about giving a mitigated taste to your cake than making your guests ill.
At any rate, most 3D printers still lack the precision to produce faithful reproductions of characters and small objects. Laser 3D printing by powder sintering would be a rather expensive solution to simply designate kings and queens for twelfth night celebrations.
La Fabulerie in Marseille offers a charm and 3D printing workshop