Singaporean Nicholas Ang has won third prize in the 3D category for the 2012 Threadcakes competition, in which budding bakers from all over the world make yummy renditions of their favourite Threadless T-shirt designs.
Said Nicholas, who is from local patisserie Cake Over Heels, of his entry on the website:
"After browsing through all the different available designs, I shortlisted about 20 for consideration. I wanted my cake to have the following criteria:
"1. Able to be constructed mostly out of cake and fondant with as little non-edible supports as possible.
"2. Be visually interesting with a lot of detail.
"3. Allow me to display my sculpting skills.
"4. Allow for some slight interpretation of my own.
"I finally decided on 'Mermaid, It's What's For Dinner' as I really liked the quirkiness of it all (my friends call it morbid but all agree that it suits me well) and I could immediately see it in my mind in cake form.
"I used a rich and dense chocolate fudge cake, layered with earl grey syrup and dark chocolate ganache.
"I started with the fat chef, carving the main body and head portion out of two 6" round cakes, which I then padded with cake pop mix (using the cake trimmings) to get the final shape.
"This was coated with ganache and then wrapped in a layer of marzipan, then followed by fondant. The details of the face were then sculpted on with fondant sculpting tools.
"All in all, the Chef uses 4 wooden chopsticks to support the fondant arms, 1 chopstick to support the hat, and 2 floral wires to support his moustache.
"Next I started work on the mermaid table. Started with a 6" square cake and reshaped it into a rectangle. Covered it with marzipan and wood marbled fondant as well. The mermaid is hand molded entirely from fondant.
"I added some of my own ideas to make the cake more interesting, my favorite was the cat getting ready for a feast! I delibrately made it a skinny cat to contrast with it's owner, the fat Chef.
Overall, the cake took about 15 hours over 2 days to complete. I invited some friends over to help me cut and eat the cake on the 3rd day, the leftover cake was packed up and distributed to appreciative friends and family."
View the step-by-step photos of Nicholas' contest entry in the gallery below.
