Crumbs! We’ve been slicing our cakes all wrong!

WHICHEVER way you slice it, cutting the Christmas cake has always seemed to be a straightforward task.

But – as if our festive traditions weren’t compromised enough already this year – a mathematician has now figured out that we have been doing it all wrong.

The time-honoured way of dividing it is to cut out a wedge from the centre.

But Chris Budd, Professor of Applied Maths at Bath University, said that the traditional way risks rapidly drying out moist fruit cakes. Professor Budd highlighted the first-world problem in a Christmas lecture.

He said: ‘This year, I’m particularly concerned about the way people dry out their cake by exposing the soft interior to the drying air. This too comes down to poor cutting technique,’ he said. The superior method was first proposed in 1906 by polymath Sir Francis Galton, in the journal Nature. It involves removing a long, narrow wedge from near the middle of the cake by making two straight cuts across it, close to and at an equal distance from the centre.

Once this rectangular piece has been removed, it can be cut into smaller rectangles and shared around.

The two remaining sections can then be pressed together and sealed with an elastic band around the perimeter. With no exposed surfaces, the cake can then be stored exactly as it is. The next time it is served, the same process can begin – only this time at a right angle to the original cuts, removing a similar, smaller section.

Once again, the two remaining segments can be pressed together, maintaining the round-ish shape of the original and thereby sealing it. Professor Budd adds: ‘And so the slicing should continue, with about onethird of the cake being removed on each occasion until you are left with crumbs.’