Antarctic-Themed Cakes

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Welcome aboard the US Coast Guard Polar Star! The only ice-breaking vessel capable of making the trip from Seattle to Antarctica every year, forcing its nose through 18 miles of ice up to 21 feet thick! This vessel makes it possible for our resupply cargo ship, The Ocean Giant (seen trailing behind in the third photo), to arrive at McMurdo research base with our next 1+ years of food, building materials, and vital supplies. Many of us hiked up the ridgelines around base for 10+ days, eager to see something on the horizon for the first time in months. We watched as it came closer and closer until it finally made its way up to the natural coastline. We sat on the hill behind the chapel, jaws dropped in awe as we watched the Polar Star driving its nose up on top of the ice - the bow aggressively pushing higher and higher above the surface until the weight of the 14,000 ton ship burst through the ice in a dramatic, gratifying moment. It repeats this process for days (maybe weeks) until the Coast Guard finally makes it onto land: 150 deprived humans eager to eat all of our fresh pizza as fast as we’re able to churn it out. (Cake, video, and first photo by me; the rest from @businessinsider, Naval Today, and Maritime Executive.)

A post shared by WHISK ME AWAY CAKES (@whiskmeawaycakes) on Nov 5, 2019 at 5:50am PST

After spending several months working as a sous chef in the Antarctic, Rose McArdoo got back to New York. There, she was welcomed with many questions by her friends. Are there penguins in the Antarctic? How does she get her supplies? Is she on an iceberg?

McAdoo set about answering their questions the best way she knows how: with cake.

"Cake is my canvas," she says. "It's my way of making big ideas literally digestible."

The result was a series of descriptive desserts McAdoo developed to tell the story of life and work at McMurdo Station, a U.S.-run research station in Antarctica. She says she chose projects that showcase the diversity of the research that's happening on the continent. She is now releasing photographs of the cakes, and the stories and science behind them, on her Instagram page.

Know more about the story over at NPR.

(Image Credit: Rose McAdoo/ Instagram)