If you've ever played the game Portal, this should be all you need:



If you haven't played, let me explain. There is a game called Portal. In this game, you use a portal gun to create orange and blue halves of a portal; these two halves make a connection in space, a gateway (or portal) between the two circles. Go in one, you come out the other. This works with light, too; hence, look at one of the portals, and you see what's on the other side.


(Here, looking through the orange portal, you can see through the blue portal to the side of the robot...which is shooting you.)

Your progress in this game is guided by GLaDOS, an artificial intelligence who promises you cake as you proceed through the various challenges testing the physics behind the portal gun. Some say the cake is a lie.



Along the way, you find a companion cube, whom you love with all your heart. Poor companion cube.



You may also have heard "Still Alive", which is the closing theme to the game, sung by Jonathan Coulton.

In any case, Portal is an amazing game which (deservedly) inspires devotion in some people. Our housemate Alex is one such person. For his birthday party, it was clear that we needed to create an actual portal for him. And once there was a portal, there had to be a companion cube...and cake...

:) The portals were made by taking photos from the appropriate paces, and photoshopping them into high-res images of the portal borders. They were then printed out, along with the companion cube pieces, on a large-paper plotter. Cut, trimmed, and affixed, the effect was actually quite strong.



The cake is delicious oreo cheesecake with well-applied frosting decoration; the companion cube is made of love.