There’s something intrinsically magical about a garishly decorated cake. Near toxic doses of butter, icing sugar and food colouring can turn tasteless packet mix baking into an instant party hit. Perhaps it’s the by-product of a generation raised on the Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book, but chocolate and liquorice just taste so much better when they look like piano keys. Now an online competition called Threadcakes, run by the t-shirt collective Threadless, has taken the popcorn train and raised it a flaming cottage attacked by a robot. (For the culinary-inclined check out these step-by-step photos on their creation) Even cooler is the fact the cakes are near-perfect replicas of t-shirt designs from the Threadless collection. The idea behind Threadless is brilliant in its simplicity. Get arty folk to submit their own designs for t-shirts each week. The lads at Threadless HQ narrow these down to ten, which are then put up for a public vote. Weekly winners get printed, sold through an online store and are slipped US$2000 for their troubles. Not too shabby at all. On average, about 1500 designs are submitted each week, but don’t get daunted by the lavish samples here - some of the winners are pretty simple, so get scribbling. You might see your vision not just on someone’s torso, but brought to life in sugary, buttery glory in next year’s competition.