Shakespeare hates your emo poems

In a bid to win the coveted “Coolest Aunt Ever” title, I got the “Shakespeare hates your emo poems” Threadless shirt for my nephew about a year ago. We are both big fans of Shakespeare and snarky t-shirts, so when a friend emailed me about the Threadcakes competition, that shirt was the clear choice for inspiration. I recruited my nephew to be a creative consultant and my mom to be lead artist. It was our first shot at using fondant, something we’ve been curious to experiment with. Our cake was a pumpkin spice cake made from scratch. Two thin rectangular layers are held together and covered with brown sugar frosting. We made marshmallow fondant – a simple mix of marshmallows, water and powdered sugar – and colored it with ivory coloring gel. We don’t have any photos of us placing the rolled-out fondant on top of the cake because all six of our hands were needed to pick it up off the counter and center it onto the cake. It was a nerve-wracking endeavor that we tried a few times (If we cover the counter in powdered sugar, will the fondant stick? What about butter? Corn starch???) before getting it right. Once the cake was fondant-covered, we melted some chocolate, and my mom used it to paint Shakespeare’s disapproving face. We then attached the fondant scroll on top (which is rolled-out ivory fondant wrapped around another tube of fondant, and the “wooden pegs” coming out of the side of the scroll are pieces of rigatoni dipped in chocolate) and “aged” the edges with more chocolate. Next, I painted on the lettering, which was also done in chocolate. Finally, we added the “torn paper” at the bottom. Our efforts served two awesome purposes: 1. Our Threadcakes entry, and 2. Dessert for a Shakespearean Murder Mystery Costume Party we had that night with the rest of our family. The cake was devoured (by characters like the Merchant of Tennis and Mary, Queen of Schnapps) just before the final clues were revealed.