Spiderman Cake

My little Big Boys have turned 3 years old. Celebrations all round!! Of course I wanted to bake their birthday cake so I asked them what they wanted. My boys are really into all things superhero at the moment and the superhero du jour is Spiderman so they wanted a Spiderman Cake.

I panicked at first but once the challenge was accepted by me I set out to find the easiest way I could make something that resembled our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman. The answer was very obvious, just make the face and get the colours right and tadaah ... a superhero cake.

The plan was to use fondant on the whole cake and then just fill in the web and eye details. Alas all good plans can come unhinged. I have not worked with fondant successfully EVER and this time was no different. I didn't have enough for the size of my cake and rolled it too thin and then I couldn't get it back off the rolled surfaced and when I did get some off it was sticky and broken and just awful. So I opted to just make a fondant top of cake and ice the sides that way I could get a thick enough fondant base that would not be stuck to the surface. Because I did not have ingredients to whip up a batch of icing (nor did I have the will as it was almost 10pm at that stage) I used store bought Betty Crocker's vanilla icing .. yum yum yum!

Here's what I made.

Spiderman Cake

1 round butter cake (approx 8.5 inches)
1 pack store bought ready to roll fondant
1 tube of Wilton's black icing
1 tub of Betty Crocker's vanilla icing
red gel colouring
blue liquid colouring

1. Draw a template of Spidey's face and pin on cake. Then neatly cut the shape out.

2. Ice the cut cake with a layer of icing. Not too thick as it's there mainly to help hold the fondant in place.

3. Use red gel colouring on fondant until you get the colour you want. Then cut Spidey's face out and place on top of cake.

4. Use a small tip needle or stick to trace the lines for eyes and web.

5. Fill in the blanks with the black icing. Either fit a small plain nozzle at the end of tube or put black icing in a pipping bag.

6. Make the icing for the side of cake blue. Then pipe to cover the sides.

7. Watch the excitement on the faces of the kids when you show them for the first time their Spiderman cake ... and then watch in horror as they stick their fingers into the blue icing almost immediately "just to taste" your efforts.