Ceceri - Edible Inventions

Edible Inventions

Cooking Hacks and Yummy Recipes You Can Build, Mix, Bake, and Grow

By Kathy Ceceri

Copyright 2016 Kathy Ceceri. All rights reserved.

Printed in Canada

Published by
Maker Media, Inc.,
1160 Battery Street East, Suite 125,
San Francisco, California 94111.

Maker Media books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (.

Publisher: Roger Stewart

Editor: Patrick Di Justo

Copy Editor: Elizabeth Campbell, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: Elizabeth Welch, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Interior Designer and Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Cover Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Indexer: Valerie Perry, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

September 2016: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2016-09-15 First Release

See oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781680452051 for release details.

Make:, Maker Shed, and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. The Maker Media logo is a trademark of Maker Media, Inc. Edible Inventions and related trade dress are trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Maker Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.

978-1-680-45205-1

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How to Contact Us

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Maker Media, Inc.

1160 Battery Street East, Suite 125

San Francisco, CA 94111

877-306-6253 (in the United States or Canada)

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Maker Media unites, inspires, informs, and entertains a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages. Maker Media celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any Technology to your will. The Maker Media audience continues to be a growing culture and community that believes in bettering ourselves, our environment, our educational systemour entire world. This is much more than an audience, its a worldwide movement that Maker Media is leading. We call it the Maker Movement.

For more information about Maker Media, visit us online:

• Make: and Makezine.com: makezine.com
• Maker Faire: makerfaire.com
• Maker Shed: makershed.com

To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to .

Please visit http://craftsforlearning.com for more information about the book, and the author.

To my boys: good eaters, good cooks, and always happy to experiment in the kitchen!

Thanks to the following people for their advice, help, and support in creating Edible Inventions:

• Miguel Valenzuela for introducing me to the idea of edible inventions with his original LEGO PancakeBot and designing a scaled-back version for this book that anyone can buildand for suggesting I write this book in the first place
• John Ceceri III for lending his LEGOs and his expertise
• Lily Born and her father Joe for sharing the inspiring story of the Kangaroo Cup
• Amy Halloran for her tips on pancakes and baking soda
• Howard Stoner and David Borton for their tips on solar ovens and tin can stoves
• Kay Holt and Bastian for testing the solar project
• and everyone at Maker Media and Happenstance Type-O-Rama, especially my hard-working editor Patrick DiJusto.

In 2012, Make: magazine asked me how I came to invent the PancakeBot. I told them that one day for breakfast I was drawing pancakes for my daughters Lily and Maia and reading Make: magazine. There was an article (http://makezine.com/2014/02/11/blockheads/) that described using LEGO to build a prototype of a machine that stamps images onto pancakes. I dont know exactly how it happened, but I think I mentioned the article to Lily and the next thing I heard was, Maia! Papa is going to make a pancake machine! Maia screamed in excitement and both of them did some kind of dance, and the next thing I knew, I was on the hook to make a PancakeBot.

Over the next few years, I brought different versions of the PancakeBot to Maker Faires in New York, San Francisco, France, the UK, and Norway. One of the highlights of that time was when we were invited to the White House Maker Faire in Washington, D. C. Today, I run a company called PancakeBot LLC. Weve partnered with another company named Storebound that helps us make and sell machines that automatically print pancakes in any design you create. And I've learned a lot about how an invention goes from an idea to a reality.

The thing with inventing is that most inventors focus on, well, the inventing part. As a result, many people struggle to share their inventions with the world. There are lots of way to take your invention to market, which is when an idea goes from the drawing board to the store shelf (or even an online store). Before sharing your idea, though, you should ask yourself if you want to protect it, or put it out there for the world to run with.

If you want to protect your idea, youll have to file a patent application. That lets you claim a patent pending status and tell the world you intend to protect your idea. Luckily, the United States Patent Office has lots of information on this. You can visit uspto.gov for more information. Another route that you can consider is licensing, where you share your protected idea with a manufacturer who can take it to market for you. In exchange, you get royalty payments based on how many products you sell. (A good reference is the book Sell Your Ideas With or Without a Patent