My 2012 Threadcake : "We're Not Savages"

Ahhh, yes. The time has finally come to reveal my Threadcake! I actually made this cake about two weeks ago, but my inner-procrastinator decided to submit my entry for the contest on the very last day of submission! My inner perfectionist is also stretching it out later because I have to find the right words to put in my description and the right photos to put in. Ack! I took a break to blog since I was already on the computer.

Let's see... where to start with this one... Ah! Well, I'll start with the T-shirt design from Threadless.

Courtesy of Threadless.com

The shirt was to be a birthday gift of my good friend Joe, so I wanted to make a matching cake. The problem was I had never read Lord of the Flies, which is what this design is based on. I got into reading the book, which was quite riveting and entertaining. I wanted to make the cake from scratch, so I found a recipe here that was originally adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe. I added a bit more than a tablespoon of almond emulsion to each batch to make it tastier.

The cakes came out a bit denser than I thought, like a pound cake. But this ended up working out because I didn't want to use any inedible supports (part of the rules). I mixed up some caramel icing into my vanilla buttercream (love that flavor combo, as all of you may already know).

I filled and stacked my layers with the caramel buttercream then carved a skull shape out of cake.

I covered the cake in cream-colored fondant on the front for the skull and pink in the back because the mountain was made of pink rock in the novel. This part actually made the cake look like Donkey Kong, so I didn't bother taking a picture of it at this point!

I got to work on the figures, making Piggy, Ralph, and others. I must admit that it was the first time I actually sculpted little faces and bodies, so I was worried about how they would look. But I think they turned out great! The only support I used was uncooked thin spaghetti (glad I had that lingering in my cupboards!)

Next I made the bodies and the little details like the teddy bear and the infamous conch...

Next, I placed the figures on the cake, using more uncooked pasta.

I filled in the spaces with trees and bushes and covered the board with edible sand (brown and white sugar mixed).

Some detail shots...

And the cake was a hit at the birthday dinner! Joe loved it!

Happy birthday, Joe!

The link to my official Threadcake 2012 entry is here! :)