Cake is where I'm a skeleton

November 7, 2014 2:08 PM

T-shirt company Threadless have been running an annual cake competition to bake a cake based on one of their t-shirt designs since 2009. The standard has been very high in all years, but perhaps these are all a little unscientific for you. Fear not: one of this year's entries dissects the biology of one of the gentlest inhabitants of America's three-fingered parallel universe, Springfield. Detailing ribs, muscle fibre, brain and bowel, this anatomical cutout of Ralph Wiggum has come far from red velvet cake and swiss meringue buttercream it's made from.

Ralph Wiggum previously, and giving us the title quote. Threadcakes is run by MeFi's own disillusioned.

posted by ambrosen (30 comments total)

I was really confused at first - the very first picture IS the cake! Fondant is a helluva crafting supply.
posted by muddgirl at 2:12 PM on November 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

the very first picture IS the cake!

No it isn't....is it possible to get a link JUST to the cake?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:18 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, wait, I see what you mean - the very first picture on the "this anatomical cutout of Ralph Wiggum" link.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:19 PM on November 7, 2014

Yes, sorry, that's the link I meant (I honestly didn't click any of the other links...)

This is a cake!
Pretty incredible!
posted by muddgirl at 2:21 PM on November 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sorry I didn't make the main link clearer. I probably should've let it stand as a single link, but then I saw quite how high the standard of other entries was.
posted by ambrosen at 2:29 PM on November 7, 2014

From what I could tell, only the half-body is actual, edible cake.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:37 PM on November 7, 2014

Woah, amazing. I find the 2-D ones even more exciting, for some reason.

Clever marketing idea.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 2:38 PM on November 7, 2014

That's pretty typical of these kinds of fancy cakes, IME. There are pictures of the cake being eaten from the, ah, head down.
posted by muddgirl at 2:38 PM on November 7, 2014

It's all edible, but modelling paste isn't exactly delicious, so the bones and guts are going to have been left to the end if they got eaten at all.
posted by ambrosen at 2:47 PM on November 7, 2014

ambrosen: It's all edible, but modelling paste isn't exactly delicious

Perhaps because it tastes like burning?
posted by filthy light thief at 2:50 PM on November 7, 2014 [6 favorites]

In other anthropocakeist news.
posted by Thing at 2:54 PM on November 7, 2014

The cakes from the other years are mostly disturbing and bizarre too. I had no idea there were so many horror bakers at large. I love it.
posted by fshgrl at 2:58 PM on November 7, 2014

Speaking of Threadless and unscientific, I am very disappointed that almost none of the symbols on this shirt seem to be real molecules. I didn't check until after buying the shirt :-( One of them might have been histidine, I dunno, I was too busy crying.
posted by exogenous at 3:09 PM on November 7, 2014

Perhaps because it tastes like burning?

Actually, it tastes like grandma.
posted by Twicketface at 3:31 PM on November 7, 2014

Not that I've seen tons of these kinds of cakes, but I've never seen the black piping/inked outline executed like on the Ralph Wiggum cake. Brilliant.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:57 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Canonically, Ralph should be in a pie
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 4:43 PM on November 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

what's amazing to me is that there is at least one other Ralph in the contest, and it seems pretty great to me, too, but it's getting little attention.

These are all remarkable.
posted by janey47 at 5:49 PM on November 7, 2014

Incredible. All the runner-ups are amazing too.

I take it that the Ralph design was inspired by Jason Freeny?
posted by cazoo at 6:35 PM on November 7, 2014

Threadcakes is run by Metafilter's own, me!

Thanks for the post! This year's contest was completely crazy. I'm actually judging this weekend, which is a horribly difficult chore, and why I have a panel of other judges who submit their ballots to me. (Also so my house isn't egged.)
posted by disillusioned at 7:05 PM on November 7, 2014 [23 favorites]

It's also weird to explain that one of my side projects is a cake contest... based on the winners of a t-shirt design contest...
posted by disillusioned at 7:08 PM on November 7, 2014 [12 favorites]

Disillusioned... what's the opposite of eponysterical...

threadcakes has always been one of the marvels of the modern internet.
posted by jefflowrey at 7:29 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

What a clever project (you rock disillusioned) and what an impressive display of creativity + cake craftsmanship. My favorite was this take on the Celestial Cephalopod.
posted by stubbehtail at 9:24 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

What I can't wrap my head around is how she managed to create that perfectly weighted black outline. It doesn't look like black strings of fondant on a flattened 3D model. At first I was sure the original image was manipulated but it's apparent in this photo too, which makes the cake look like it was fully 3 dimensional. I HAVE to know how she did this! Is there a making-of video, or a shot from another angle?
posted by biddeford at 12:50 AM on November 8, 2014

From this photo it looks like very fine black icing. It looks like it's lined up to look like cell lines from the same angle as the original art. That said, when I use thin paint and a fine brush for edge highlighting on a sculpt, if you stick to the sharp edges and place it right, it works pretty much from all angles. You can see that here, with the head decapitated (and a thread of the black icing hanging free from the muscles on the right). I'm sure you could ask the baker for more on how she did it in the comment thread!

Also; higher-res version of the full ralph. Just because it's awesome.
posted by ArkhanJG at 1:29 AM on November 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Malibu Stac(e)y approves wholeheartedly, and will ensure her next doll says, "now let's forget all our troubles with a big bowl of Ralph cake!".

Seriously, that is impressive. That is art.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 2:42 AM on November 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

This takes the cake. (C'mon, someone has to say it!)
posted by Jubey at 3:49 AM on November 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

You might even say we just ate Ralph and he's in our stomachs right now! Wait, scratch that one.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:35 AM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

jaw... dropped...
posted by TrinsicWS at 6:45 PM on November 9, 2014

I can see his liver bones!
posted by rhizome at 12:21 AM on November 10, 2014

When can we stop calling them cakes, and start calling them fondant sculptures?
posted by Grandysaur at 12:26 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]