Engineers the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, along with collaborators, have created something called ‘RoboCake’ as part of the EU-funded RoboFood project. This isn’t just a cake you eat while watching a robot dance around it. RoboCake is a fully edible wedding cake that’s also a functional robot.
That’s right, this is a multi-tiered cake with actual moving parts, like two edible gummy bear figurines on top that can “dance” thanks to an internal pneumatic system. These bears are made from gelatin, syrup, and food coloring, so you can munch on them after the show.
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Photo credit: 2025 EPFL/Jamani Caillet – CC-BY-SA 4.0
The cake even has edible batteries—made from dark chocolate, vitamin B2, quercetin, and activated charcoal—that power LED candles. When you bite into the battery, you get a chocolate hit with a spicy kick from the edible electrolyte inside.
Photo credit: 2025 EPFL/Jamani Caillet – CC-BY-SA 4.0
What’s the deal with this tasty craziness? The RoboFood project is exploring edible robots for real-world uses, like dropping off emergency food in tough-to-get-to spots like disaster areas or far-off rural places, monitoring food freshness with consumable sensors, or even cutting down on electronic trash since the whole robot can be eaten.
Photo credit: 2025 EPFL/Jamani Caillet – CC-BY-SA 4.0
It’s also a bit of a culinary flex—combining robotics with gastronomy for new food experiences. RoboCake was showcased at the Swiss pavilion during the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, in April 2025, so it’s a real thing, not just a sci-fi fever dream.
