Threadcakes 2011

A couple weeks ago I learned about the Threadcakes competition. It’s an online contest where the amazing tee shirt designs from Threadless.(You’ll want to check them out if you’re not familiar with the site.) are turned into cakes. With only two weeks to go until the deadline, I started pouring over the hundreds of designs.  The choices were overwhelming, but eventually I narrowed down my selection to a few.

While I loved the Muppets tee, I had to consider my time constraints.  To do the cake justice, I’d have to spend lots of time tinting fondant just the right shades, then carving the cake and sculpting all the characters. I decided this might be a project for next year. This year my goal was to enter a cake. Next time I’ll be prepared to create something spectacular – or at least pretty darn good. 

Order the shirt
here.

                           

I kept coming back to the jack o’ lantern design and decided to go with it. The tee is kind of creepy and lots of fun, with a design within a design.

The first thing to do was bake.  I went with my standard cold oven pound cake to provide a sturdy surface on which to stack. Then, since I was making a jack o’ lantern, pumpkin cinnamon buttercream was a must.

I stacked the layers, did a little carving, and crumb coated the cake. Then it was time to cover it with orange fondant. 

I used a ruler to create some ridges and set the pumpkin aside.

Next I sketched the face and cut out the eyes and nose from black fondant and the mouth from dark gray fondant. I added to few stars and a crescent moon to the eyes and nose and applied them to the pumpkin.

Then I cut out the buildings from black fondant and laid them on top of the mouth and added white stars to the sky. Working with the teeny, tiny orange windows and lane dividers was tricky and more than a bit tedious, but I kept at it and got them positioned just right.

I shaped the two ghost figures with dark gray fondant and applied the mouth to the pumpkin.  A brown stem completed the jack o’ lantern and a fondant candle and flame finished the design.

Can’t wait to get started on next year’s cake!  Here's the link to my entry.

Oh, and be sure to check out all the amazing cakes on the Threadcakes site.