I made this 3D Spider-Man cake for Caleb's 6th birthday. Caleb knew he wanted a Spider-Man party since his previous birthday (well actually a bit before that even). He had picked Superman for his 5th birthday (see the It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman! post), but he already knew then that he wanted his next one to be Spider-Man. :)
The shoulders and chest of Spider-Man are made of cake; Spider-Man's head is actually made from a hollow craft egg. I was looking for a styrofoam egg, but I couldn't find one the right size. I did find an egg the right size made out of a really thick cardboard type of material that worked though. It kind of reminded me of a very hard paper mache type of thing.
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| underneath the icing |
So, the part that is cake is made from two 6 inch round cakes and one 9 inch round cake. (I found the basics of how to make the shape of this cake from a website called 'Coolest Homemade Birthday Cakes'. It is basically just a site where people post cakes they've made to share with others and the cakes are separated into categories - Spider-Man, cats, etc.) The two 6 inch round cakes I stacked to make the chest. The 9 inch round cake I cut into quarters and stood them up on their sides to make the shoulders. I used the part of the cake that I cut off when I leveled the 9 inch cake on the top of everything to make the transition to the head a little more natural. I covered the craft egg with foil and 'chiseled' a hole in the bottom so I could insert a dowel [this is where I wished I had found a styrofoam egg :) ]. After the dowel was in the head I inserted the dowel into the cake so that Spider-Man would now have a head. :)
I crumb coated the cake and the egg. After that was set I covered everything with red buttercream icing except a small part of his arms and the sides of his chest, I iced there with blue buttercream. I piped the outline of his eyes with white buttercream and filled them in. I piped around his eyes with black buttercream icing and piped on all the webbing for his head. After the head was finished I went on to piping the webbing for the chest and shoulders, outlining the blue sections, and drawing the spider symbol on Spider-Man's chest. After I cleaned up the board at the base of the cake I piped a thin border around the base of the cake with black buttercream icing. I thought it gave the cake a more clean and finished look.
Caleb was so excited about his Spider-Man cake, and it was a big hit at the party. :)
After Caleb blew out his candles and while we were getting everything ready to cut the cake, my dad had loads of fun entertaining the kids [and himself :) ] by rotating Spider-Man's head from side to side and talking to the kids like it was Spider-Man talking. The kids were cracking up! I think it was just more from how he was moving the head 'looking' back and forth at the kids as they would say something than really anything he was actually making it say. It was funny. :)
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