How to Make a Model of an Animal Cell From Edible Materials

A plain, round cake makes an ideal decorating platform for an animal cell project.

Cells are the building blocks of life, working together to ensure that complex organisms, like human beings, are able to exist. The cells that make up animals are called animal cells. Every animal cell contains numerous, specialized parts, called organelles, which help protect and nourish the cell. One tasty way to showcase the animal cell and its organelles is to bake a cake model of one.

Things You'll Need

• Cake mix
• Cake pan
• Milk
• Eggs
• Red frosting
• Blue frosting
• White frosting
• Large Cookie
• Chocolate sandwich cookies
• Whipped cream
• Gum drops
• Jelly beans and chocolate candy pieces
• Sprinkles

Instructions

Bake the Cake

1. Mix the cake's batter, carefully following the instructions on your preferred cake mix.

2. Bake the cake in a round cake pan. Ideally, the cake should be at least 10 inches in diameter, to provide you with a sizable decorating platform.

3. Frost the cake with white frosting. The frosting should be heavy on top of the cake, as it will provide the foundation for the organelles. This frosting will be representing the cell's cytoplasm, the fluid in which all of the cell's organelles are suspended.

Add Large Cell Structures

1. Frost the edge of the cake with a thin ring of blue frosting. This is the cell membrane, which controls what enters and exits the cell.

2. Place a cookie or round-cut brownie just off center, in any direction. This is the nucleus, the cell's information and control center.

3. Scoop a coin-sized dollop of whipped cream on top of the cookie or round-cut brownie, perhaps placing a cherry on top. This is the nucleolus, where the cell produces ribosomal RNA.

4. Draw a series of closely-packed, wavy lines around the nucleus in red frosting, on two or more sides. These wavy lines, with the nucleus itself, can take up approximately 30 to 40 percent of the cake's surface area. The wavy lines represent the cell's endoplasmic reticulum, which detoxifies harmful substances, synthesizes lipids and produces proteins.

Add Small Cell Structures

1. Cut or break a chocolate sandwich cookie into thirds, and place the segments in any unused area on top of the cake. Set them in the cake so that they have approximately 1/2 inch of space in between each segment. This is the Golgi complex, where proteins are processed and distributed.

2. Place two or three gum drops near one another in one corner of the cake, 1 or 2 inches from the cell membrane. These are the cell's mitochondria, which transform food into energy.

3. Distribute a few green jelly beans or small colored candy pieces around the cake, spaced widely apart from one another. These are the cell's lysosomes, which digest foreign bodies and the waste products of the other organelles.

4. Place individual sprinkles throughout the cake's remaining unused surface, and place a few on just one region of the endoplasmic reticulum. The sprinkles represent the cell's free ribosomes, which create proteins.

Tips & Warnings

• Take a picture of your finished model, print it and label it, and place it near the cake when ready to serve, if you are presenting the product to people who might not be familiar with cellular structures. Alternatively, label it with toothpick flag labels.

• Reference a graphical representation of an animal cell to get a better feel for the different organelles, their shapes and their placements.

• Adapt this model to brownies or other flat cakes that can be cut into a spherical shape, if desired.

References

• Discover Biology (Second Edition); Michal L. Cain, Hans Damman, Robert A. Lue and Carol Kaesuk Yoon
• Biology: Science for Life; Colleen Belk and Virginia Borden