It's a bird!! It's a plane!!! No, it's a super hero packed Spider-Man Batman Birthday Cake!!! Wow I could not even begin to believe that I was able to pull this off. Don't get me wrong, I did it-I see the flaws there. It is by no means perfect at all. But for my third attempt at frosting an entire cake (which the last time I've done this has been over a year) and my first time working with fondant I have no complaints.
I used a 10inch and 6inch round cake pans for this.
You see, we had a 7th birthday to celebrate. And he loves all things super heroes, just ask "What do you want for your birthday?" What would you like for Christmas?" For the past 3 years that I have known him his answer has always quite simply been SUPER HEROES!!! So with that response again this year I decided to take to Pinterest.
I baked two of each size
I have an addition to that site, and that's all you need to know-don't judge! At first it was only to look for decorations for the house and game ideas and then I started finding superhero cupcakes and then they had all of these amazing looking cakes.
I cut the tops of each cake round off with this little thingy that I got at Walmart (no clue what it's called)
Then the down fall happened, showing said future 7 year old the cakes...I don't think I even have to explain what happened, you know. He wanted one, and just how do you say no? You don't, you figure out a way to make it happen.
Made the buttercream icing (the recipe is listed below)
When looking at all the different cakes for ideas to pull from, I was really frustrated that every single link was just to a picture. No directions, no how-to, or anything. Though I knew the basics of how to do everything sometimes it's just nice to have a point of reference.
I put the first cake of the bottom tier cut side down and frosted the top.
Something that tells you your heading in the right direction and gives you some tips of some sort along the way. So, though I don't do cakes, and don't usually post a lot of cake stuff I figured I would at least share this one.
Smoothing it and removing any excesses
Placing the second cake round cut side down on top of the iced cake. (This is the 10 inch cake)
This is the 6 inch cake after being stacked.
To frost the cakes, I use a generous amount of icing. I piped icing onto the sides of the cake and all over the top, not the prettiest looking thing but you get the idea.
I cover and smooth down the top, allowing the icing to spill over the sides and then go to work on the sides of the cake. Smoothing and removing excess icing as I go. Obviously this is not as smooth and perfect as it could be but trust me it's not as easy as it looks and please know my inner OCD is cringing at all the things I want to fix!
Like I said before, I have never worked with fondant so I asked around and had a few people recommend the Wilton brand so I decided to try that out. Instead of buying white and attempting to dye it myself on my first go around I took the easy route and bought it already in color since I just needed black and yellow.
To help prevent sticking, sprinkling a little bit of confectioners sugar on the counter and rolling pin helps. (Obviously I sprinkled a lot!)
I used less than a fourth of the block I bought to roll this out, just because I didn't know how much I was going to need and didn't wait it drying out.
I cut the batman sign and used an Exact-o knife to cut around it on the fondant.
Using a bench scraper, I made little squares out of the yellow fondant (not the most exact but it worked given the time I had left to finish it).
As well as using the bench scraper to make different sized buildings to go around the bottom cake.
Finished Batman sign after I put the 3 different fondant pieces together.
Finished Spiderman sign, and wow was this one a little harder to do. I had to do a really rough spider and then go back in and finish the detail work.
Finished buildings.
Now that I have the cakes stacked all that is left is to pipe on the spider web on the top cake and start assembling.
Again with the Wilton brand, I used that again to dye regular store bought icing (yes I know this must be a crime, but I was afraid that my buttercream frosting was too thick to pipe the way that I wanted...so store bought it was for now).
This is the cake after attaching everything to the cake (I used icing on the back of the fondant pieces).
And the back that I did to use up the left over buildings that I had.
Pretty much this whole thing overall was a lot of fun to do. It taught me that I have a lot to practice and work on, but it also got me excited about practicing and working on those things in the future. I mean hey, what else am I supposed to do with all the left over Buttercream? :)
Simple Buttercream
via On Baking
Makes 3 pounds
1 pound unsalted butter, softened
2 oz. pasteurized egg (optional)
2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the egg (if using). Gradually add the sugar, frequently scraping down the bowl.
3. Add the vanilla and continue beating until the icing is smooth and light.
