Portal Cake: 'The Cake is a Lie' — the Real Recipe

Portal Cake: 'The Cake is a Lie' — the Real Recipe

'The cake is a lie' is one of the greatest memes in video game history. GLaDOS promises Chell a cake for completing the test chamber. The promise is never fulfilled — until fans started baking it themselves.

History and origin

The Portal cake is a rich chocolate cake shown in the game's closing scene (2007). Valve developers placed its recipe in the game files. The cake became a symbol of unfulfilled promises and irony in gaming culture.

Key ingredients

From the game's files: a moist chocolate cake based on a chocolate bar, with layers of chocolate cream, decorated with white icing and maraschino cherries. Canonically it is layered with cream between the tiers.

How to cook at home

Moisture in a chocolate cake comes from coffee: add a cup of strong hot coffee to the batter in place of some of the water — it deepens the chocolate flavour without being detectable itself. Make the cream thick or the layers will slide.

Try this recipe at home — it's much easier than it looks and will make you feel part of your favourite universe.