Here's How You Should Be Cutting Cake

At your next birthday, give yourself a present: longer-lasting cake. It turns out that the way we've all been cutting cake is causing it to dry out before it should. Fortunately, there's a (relatively) easy solution, and author/mathematician Alex Bellos is letting the world know via YouTube. It seems to be all about protecting the inside of the cake by keeping it inside. Instead of cutting a v-shaped slice, Bellos explains, you should cut the whole thing down the center and take out a long, flat slice from the middle.

Then you squeeze the two sides together, shielding the parts you exposed. For the next day's slice, cut through the center again, perpendicular to the initial cut. Again, squeeze the uneaten parts together. Repeat each time you cut a slice; Bellos puts a rubber band around the cake when he stores it, keeping the whole thing tight. "Of course, this method also assumes that there are people out there who are either incapable of or unwilling to eat an entire cake in one sitting," notes Mark Shrayber at Jezebel. Bellos didn't invent the system, as he and the Daily Mail point out. It was revealed more than 100 years ago in a Nature magazine letter to the editor. (Another advantage: Any rats baked inside should quickly be spotted.)