This cartoon cake is also known as a “comic cake,” and the secret to its appearance lies in decorating the layers to look two-dimensional, like a hand-drawn cartoon. Some bakers create this effect with fondant, but you can use buttercream icing too.

Norah Clark, professional pastry chef and creator of Yummy Tasty Food shares that the key to creating the perfect cartoon cake is to use color, shape, and depth perception to create an illusion of flatness. Here’s how to make it at home:

• Choose a design: Pick a design that includes clean lines and bright colors. It’ll be easier if you choose a cake with a simple shape like a circle or a square.
• Bake and level the cake: Whatever recipe you choose, make sure the surface is flat to maintain the 2D appearance.
• Apply buttercream icing: Start by covering a thin layer of buttercream frosting. This is called a crumb coat and will trap any crumbs that come off the cake. Smooth the frosting to give the cake a nice shape. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look neat and tidy, since you’re going to cover it up with another layer.
• Decorate the cake: It’s easier to go for fondant and shape it into smooth designs, but you can also use colored buttercream.

• Buy fondant in the colors you like, or make it yourself at home.
• Roll out a large sheet of the base fondant, making it thin enough to spread evenly over the cake but thick enough not to tear.
• Carefully place the base fondant over the cake and smooth out the surface. Cut off any excess fondant at the base.

• Use parchment paper stencils to cut out your shapes.
• Use long, thin cylinders of black fondant as outlines. Attach the thin black fondant lines along the outer edges with water to give it a 2D appearance.

• Divide the icing into two batches and color each with food coloring to match the colors of your design.
• Draw the design elements onto a piece of parchment paper cut to the size of your cake. Outline them using a knife.
• Using a piping bag and a small round tip, fill in your design with icing following your sketch.

• Flatten the icing using the back of a spoon to achieve that 2D effect. The goal is to blend the borders between colors whilst still maintaining their individuality… just like a cartoon.
• Use black icing to outline your design to give the cake the classic cartoon look. For precise lines and a realistic look, put black buttercream in a piping bag with a small, round tip. Line all the edges, and voilá — you have your cartoon cake!

This is the story of Kristi Barker, a physical therapist. She has a five-day-a-week weightlifting routine at the gym. She desired an alternative form of exercise that left her feeling as good mentally as it did physically. Therefore, she turned to high-impact exercise that gave her a significant endorphin boost in addition to being feasible in a small place. Experts continue to recommend incorporating force-focused exercises into your routine.

If you imagine dreadful burpees when you read “high-impact exercise,” you are not incorrect. The term ‘impact’ implies two forces coming into contact with each other. That said, any exercise that involves such an interaction would be considered high-impact. This is what Brad Shoenfeld, Ph.D., an exercise science professor at Lehman College, City University of New York says. This includes exercises such as jump squats and jumping rope, as well as high-energy dancing and jogging. Contrary to what many athletes have been taught to believe, it is an amazing experience for your body and mind.

Unfortunately, Kristi Barker says that there is a stigma surrounding high-impact training. It’s portrayed as detrimental to the joints and beyond. The solution, according to Barker, is education about its benefits and insights into how to incorporate it into your routine.

The number one advantage, according to Chris Hartley, Ph.D., lecturer in biomedical sciences at Birmingham City University in the U.K., high-impact exercise increases bone mineral density and reduces fracture risk. It has been demonstrated that jumping and hopping increase bone strength at the hip. This is a fracture point in older women. Hartley also explains that bone adapts to the stress and strains placed on it. The more we load the bone, the stronger it will become. Young soccer players had denser bones than cyclists and swimmers, according to research conducted at the University of Exeter in England. Feeling the force also improves your joint stability and balance, and may assist you in altering your body composition.

When Shoenfeld and his team compared resistance training and plyometrics for lower-body muscle growth, they found that both activities resulted in comparable gains. A recent assessment discovered that plyometric exercises promote hypertrophy, regardless of age and gender.

We’re not suggesting that you should replace resistance training with plyometrics. Incorporating bouncy exercises into your routine can help you achieve your muscle-building objectives and improve your mental health. Whether you are a 25-year-old and looking to shake up your strength-training routine or a 45-year-old and want to strengthen your frame so that you can run marathons with your grandkids one day, or in your 50s or 60s and looking to combat the bone-weakening effects of menopause, high-training exercise is the missing piece.