Making of inkspirate, threadcakes

The online cake competition "Threadcakes" is very strict in that they require entries to be made of real cake, and that you submit pictures to prove it. I see the whole competition as a great learning opportunity because of that. You can view my entry at the link below, but all the pictures and writeup is right here for you. Do be sure to visit the Threadcakes site and see all the amazing cakes.

​ http://www.threadcakes.com/entries/view/1944#1 

WRITEUP: (pics below)
We all know the InksPirate. It seeps out of our deepest subconcious, wraps inky tentacles of doubt, fear and sadness around the rainbow sails of our Ship of Dreams, which would take you anywhere your heart wishes to go. The Darkness slowly drains the Color and Thrill out of Life, but *only* if we let it be stolen. Dreams and Thrills in our sails are driving the power to overcome anything that tries to restrain the Ship. 

I really relate to this Art, even if that probably wasnt what Mr Afandi had in mind. It stood out from a ton of other designs, and appeared to my mind full-fledged in full-color.

The first step was a scale printout of the Art. I then created a side-and-top profile using drafting techniques to generate several patterns. The structure is foamcore, dowels, and hot glue which has been covered with my plactic-wrap food-safe method in prep for cake. I also covered the pedestal base in fondant, and detailed/airbrushed ocean waves ont the board. Next I baked some pound cake, in a 11x17 pan, so it makes a nice little 1/2 layer - no leveling needed. I also made some Swiss Meringue Buttercream and tinted some pink, orange and purple. I then used my template to cut out each layer of cake. Each layer got a layer of buttercream. I then let it set and carved away a tiny bit before crumbcoating the whole cake in white SMBC. I also made a small cube of cake the same way for the ink bottle

Next I set up the sails. I made a little pattern from the Art, and then created a little mold from old fondant so they could dry in that lovely billowing sail look. I made a total of 16 sails from gumpaste, and then hand-painted them with rainbow swirls. Last step was to airbrush pearl to give that "faded" look.

Then I cut patterns made from paper towels and cut pieces of fondant. There were two layers, the top one was detailed. I then airbrushed the entire cake, in a faded pattern, including pearl luster. The ink botte was covered in fondant and then black modeling chocolate. It was painted white, over a corn syrup base to help the paint stick. I painted rainbows onto a piece of gumpaste for a label. The cap was made from hardened gumpaste, also painted

Then I applied the sails to the wires on the mast using wads of sticky gumpaste. Dry Spaghetti noodles were soaked in black color and allowed to dry. I used black modeling chocolate to roll tentacles, which I allowed to set hard in the freezer. I made the rainbow suckers from little balls of gumpaste, pressed with the round end of a paintbrush. I had a little helper for all those little tentacle balls. I then attached the tentacles to the ship with more black modeling chocolate. I then applied the black spaghetti to the sails as rigging. For the final touch I rolled some rainbow blended gumpaste and cut thin ribbons for the colors being sucked from the ship.

Then we cut it open and ATE it!! It was gluten-free cake, so we could ALL have some (me included). It was DELISH+++! It took about 40hours

This was such a fun project, and BIG THANKS to the Artist Brian Nur Afandi, Threadless for being *so* cool, and of course, the wonderful folks at Threadcakes without whom this would not be possible. Never let anything Destroy the Joy, Steal the Thrill, or Kill your Colors. BIG HUGS! xxoo Heather at Art2Eat Cakes