In the dark corners outside of mainstream philosophy there are some wonderful philosophical works on a wealth of topics. For the second year of my degree, I was introduced to Ray Sorensen's Seeing Dark Things, a philosophy of shadows. It reads like a popular science book, but with regular arguments against the current theory of perception. It references popular culture from the fact that light-sabres in Star Wars shouldn't have shadows to how the plot of Spielberg's first direction project demonstrates that we can indeed see in the dark.
The book makes much of the distinction between shadows and silhouettes, two phenomenons which are often confused. I wanted to use the ideas on the decoration of a Halloween cake for a party tomorrow, and have technically decorated the scene with silhouettes, not shadows. This is how...
The sponge uses the standard sponge mixture, with 50-100g of the flour substituted with cocoa, depending on how rich you want the chocolate flavour.
I covered the top in green icing then made the silhouettes with black sherbet, sprinkling the vague background of the house on a hill myself, then using cookie cutters as templates to form the animals in the foreground.
Happy Halloween!
