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.