Crawling Spider-Man Cake - Instructions

I saw several versions of this Spider-Man cake, and I thought the crawling hand was a cool effect.  But something isn't quite right with my rendition.  Maybe his hand isn't big enough, or maybe his head needs to protrude a little more??  I'm not sure what the problem is, but 3 year old Clayton loved it nonetheless.

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I started this cake by making a bunch of fondant cutters.  I had an outline cutter for the entire figure, one cutter for the individual body parts, and one cutter for the spider web impressions on the red parts of Spider-Man.  I also had cutters for the number "3" and the alphabet in the Spider-Man font: Homoarakhan.  I used my Creality Ender 3 v2 3D printer to make the cutters.  If you want to read an intro into 3D printers for cookie cutters you can read my post HERE.  

The cutters made it easier to shape the Spider-Man figure, but honestly you could just use a paper template.  The only time the cutter was really helpful was making the spider web impression on the red fondant.  

First up I made the "3" topper because this needed a day to harden.  I pressed the web impression cutter into the red fondant, and then cut it with the "3" cookie cutter.  I added a little Tylose power (also called Gum-Tex and CMC) to the fondant which makes the fondant harden.  The more Tylose you add to the fondant the harder the fondant will become.  This is a cheaper alternative to using gum paste. 

Here is a sketch of the web that I sent to my 3D printer to make the web embosser.

Then I moved onto the crawling Spider-Man.  These are the sketches I used to make the cookie cutters.

I cut the entire shape out of black fondant to make a backing piece. 

I cut out the blue fondant sections and placed them on top of the black fondant piece.  (After assembly, I realize I cut the thigh muscles in the blue fondant too deep.  I should have made just a slight impression instead of a deep cut.) 

The red fondant portions came next.

And then I cut another head out of red fondant and stacked it on top.  This layering makes the head stick out farther than the rest of the body.  I also added the eyes at this point.

Here I've placed the second head (with the eyes) on the main body.  I've also placed the Spider-Man on a 9" foam cake dummy so it would harden with a curve that matched the 9" cake.   Notice that I also cut the fingers off the main body.  The fingers will be positioned once the Spider-Man is on the cake.

To accentuate the web markings in the red fondant, I dusted them with some black petal dust.  I used a tiny paint brush that I dipped in black petal dust and then ran the paint brush in the web lines.

At this point I left the Spider-Man to harden a bit and started on the cake itself.  It is iced in white American Buttercream, and then I dabbed on bits on black icing to give the cake a rustic look.  It almost looks like a naked cake. 

I carefully placed my hardened Spider-Man on the front of the cake.

Then I started working on the hand.  I cut out the hand....

and pushed in the web marks.

Like with the main body I used the paint brush dipped in black petal dust to accent the web lines.

Then the hand gets attached to the main body. Before positioning the hand, I added a blob of red fondant to give the hand a curved look and to keep it from collapsing against the cake drum.

Here is the hand attached to the main body with the fingers "crawling" across the cake drum.

I placed the 3 topper on the cake, and because I thought the cake drum looked too plain, I added some splotches of white icing on the black drum.

Later I decided I didn't like all the white splotches, so I scraped some of it off.

The letters for the birthday boy's name went on next.  I rolled the fondant into a wedge shape, so the top was thicker than the bottom, and then I cut out the letters.

When I scraped off the excessive white buttercream, I also added what is supposed to be a web coming out of Spider-Man's hand.  The web should be white, but I figured it wouldn't show up against the white cake, so I made it black.  So again, here is the finished cake.  Hummm...  I just don't know if I like it.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Pokémon Sword Inspired Cake

So Hurricane Ida  grazed my neck-of-woods on Sunday, August 29, 2021, and even though we took just a glancing blow, the power was out for 5 days.  We have a portable generator, so conditions were livable.  The generator kept the refrigerators going and powered some fans that kept us cool.  Silly me thought the loss of power would cancel my upcoming cake order, but surprisingly the party took place just six days after the hurricane hit. 

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I honestly thought the cake/party would be canceled so I didn't make anything ahead of time.  But on Friday, when the power came back on, the Mom texted and said she still wanted the cake for Saturday night.  I had to scramble to make everything.  The fondant "Switch" came first.  I cut out a piece of cardboard and covered the center section with black fondant. 

Then I covered one side with red fondant and the other with blue.  (I'm not a big fan of Wilton fondant, but it works fine for things that won't be eaten.)  I also added some strips of fondant to hide the seams.  I used my handy Jem Strip Cutter #3.   For the final steps I used circle cutters to make the knobs and buttons, glued a printout of the "Sword" game to the center, and called it finished.  Easy-peasy.

The Poké Ball is actually a Hot Chocolate/Cocoa Bomb.  I made one side out of red candy melts, one side out of white, and then used a strip of black fondant to cover the join (and make it look like a Poké Ball).  More circles in white and black completed the look.  (Note: JMO, but candy melts don't work unless you add Paramount Melting Crystals to the melted candy melts. The Paramount makes the candy melts softer, more fluid, and much easier to pour into the half sphere molds.)  

This cake has one of those money pullout kits in it.  Here is the cutout waiting for the box.

And the Pokémon "Sword" is the "pull" for the money box. (I hot glued the sword to the goldish "pull" that came with the money box kit.)  The birthday boy will pull the sword from the cake, and at the end of the sword will come a banner of money.  The Mom didn't send me a picture of the actual money pull, but I heard that it was a great success.

So sorry for the lack of picture during construction.  I was scrambling to finish this cake on time because you know - I DIDN'T HAVE ANY ELECTRICITY FOR 5 DAYS. 

Happy Decorating,

Carol

The Big One - Fish and Bobber Cake

A cake celebrating Archer's first birthday was requested for August 29.  If you are from Southeast Louisiana that day sends shivers down your spine because it is the day that Hurricanes Katrina (2005) struck the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. To compound the fear of that day, several other hurricanes were dancing around the gulf on that date: Gustav (2008), Isaac (2012), and Harvey (2017).  And now on August 29, 2021 we are watching Hurricane Ida racing toward the Louisiana coast.  Sadly the birthday party had to be canceled, and even sadder, I had already finished the cake. 

For this cake I decided to make the decorations out of cookies.  "The Big One" sign, the bobbers, and the big fish are all sugar cookies.  I've started using cookies as toppers because, well, you can actually eat them.  Fondant and gum paste topper are technically edible, but 99.9% of the time they are just tossed in the trash.   It is heartbreaking to see all that hard work just thrown in the garbage. Sniff.

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So now I make the toppers out of cookies (when I can).  For the sign I covered the cookie in chocolate flavored fondant, and I used a wood grain impression mat to give it the look of wood.

I just used a straight edge to make the lines for the planks.

And I used powdered food color in white, black, and blue to give the "wood" a weathered look. 

For the lettering I used the FMM Art Deco Alphabet 2cm Upper Case set and the Funky 4cm Upper Case set.  For the little bobber I used my Creality Ender 3 v2 3D printer to make the gum paste cutter.   In fact, I used my 3D printer to make cookie cutters for the sign, the bobber, and the fish. (If you want to read an intro into 3D printers for cookie cutters you can read my post HERE. )  

For the cake itself I used a technique where you pipe a blob of icing on the cake and smear the blob out into a tail using a spatula.  The technique is called blobs, petals, scallops, or scales depending on who you ask.  And I have to admit I have a hard time keeping lines of frosting straight, so I added some guide lines on the crumb coat of frosting to help with my "problem".  I used a Wilton icing comb to scrape the lines into the frosting. 

After crumb coating the cake in light sky blue, I made five additional shades of sky blue frosting.  I only had 3 of the "1A" tips, so I just use tipless piping bags for the other 3 colors.  And surprisingly the tipless bags worked just as well as the metal tips.  

Once all the colors were ready, it was just a matter of placing the blobs of frosting and dragging out the tail.   And see how the guild lines kept everything straight and even!

The technique was really easy, the only confusing part was how to finish off the last row.  It was hard trying to tuck the tail of the last blob under the first blob.  It looks a little messy, but this was the back of the cake so no one would notice.

After the cake was frosted, it was just a matter of sticking my premade cookies on top.  I made the little fish on the string with my Cricut Air Explorer. 

But sadly no one but me actually got to see the cake.  I took everything apart, boxed up the cake, and stuck it in the freezer.  (It will be eaten at our Labor Day party next week).  Archer's party has been rescheduled for September, so I will have to make the whole thing again.  Oh well, such is the life of a cake decorator in the hurricane zone.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino Cake

This week's cake was for my niece, Amanda, who is turning 21.  She is a big fan of Starbucks, so I made her a Caramel Frappuccino Cake.

For the cake itself I use a salt caramel recipe from Cupcake Jemma.  I even made the golden syrup and salted caramel that went into the batter.  And after all that work, I have to say I was a disappointed in the cake.  I found it a little dense, and overall lacking in flavor.  But the salted caramel frosting was awesome.  The frosting made up for the bland cake.

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Prior to assembly, I made a few things for this cake.  I made tiny white chocolate bars using Merckens chocolate and some tiny silicone molds.  And did I mention that the molds were tiny?  I mean really, really small.  I didn't realize how small till I started to fill them with melted chocolate.  I also made some white chocolate hot cocoa bombs in a pretty diamond heart shaped mold.  I decorated them with white and gold sugar pearls.

And like a lot of my recent cakes, I used my Creality Ender 3 v2 3D printer to make an embosser for the Starbucks logo.  (If you want to read an intro into 3D printers for cookie cutters you can read my post HERE. )  I used Choco Pan Bright White Modeling Chocolate for the logo.  The modeling chocolate is stiffer than regular fondant, so I was able to get the fine details in the logo to show up.  And I should also mention that even though the modeling chocolate is labeled as Bright White, it is more of a pale ivory or off white color.

Assembly was pretty easy.  I just frosted the cake and then added a caramel drip, and I have to say I hate working with caramel.  It is so sticky and drippy.  Once the caramel was on the cake, it wouldn't stop dripping!  I put it in the refrigerator to stop the oozing, but as soon as I took the cake out and it warmed up - the drips started to slowly slide down the cake. It drove me crazy.  I've read recently that if you add some white chocolate to the caramel it will stop the constant downward creep of the caramel drip.

After the caramel drip was on, I added some buttercream rosettes and placed the white chocolate hearts, bars, and some almond cookies.  This was a pretty quick and easy cake to make.

Here is Amanda blowing out her candles.  Look at those drippy drips sliding down the cake.  Oh Well.... Happy Birthday, Amanda.

And here is what the inside looks like...

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Baby Shark Cake with Cookie Topper

This is a quickie Baby Shark cake that I made for my grand-nephew, Kristopher.  He is turning two!  The yellow Baby Shark and the "2" on the top are cookies, and I made Kristopher his own Baby Shark cookie to munch on. 

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Like a lot of my recent cakes, I used my Creality Ender 3 v2 3D printer to make the cookie and fondant cutters.  I made the shark cutters, the "2" cutter, the wave shape cutter on the "2", and a few sizes and shapes of coral.    If you want to read an intro into 3D printers for cookie cutters you can read my post HERE.  

Here is a line drawing of shark that I sent to CookieCad to generate an STL file and then sent to the 3D printer for printing.

I didn't feel like mixing up icing for the cookies, so I used Satin Ice's Choco Pan Modeling Chocolate in yellow, black, and red.   The modeling chocolate is stiffer than fondant, so it is easier to cut and transfer to the cookie.  The modeling chocolate also tastes a lot better than fondant.  First layer on the cookie was yellow.  I used the same cutter for cutting out the dough and the modeling chocolate.

Then I added the red mouth, and white part of the body.  I had cookie cutters for each body part so it was super easy to cut of the pieces.  Note: I used regular white fondant for the belly of the shark.  The modeling chocolate comes in what they call "Bright White", but to me it is more ivory and not white.

Eyes and teeth went on last.  I also scored lines into the modeling chocolate to separate the fins from the main body.  This just gives it a little more interest.  

For the cake itself I used a blue Ombre effect to make it look like water.  I frosted the cake using CakeSafe acrylic disks which gives the cake the sharp edges and straight sides.  (I have a blog post HERE explaining how I use them.)

I tinted the frosting in four shades of Wilton's Sky Blue gel, and slapped it on the cake.

Then I just used a bench scraper to remove all the excess frosting, leaving behind smooth sides with sharp edges and a flat top.  Note: after the first swipe of the bench scraper you go back and fill any holes in the frosting and then pass the bench scraper again.   In 10 minutes you are done.  The acrylic disks make it so easy.

 After frosting the cake it was just a matter of slapping on the decorations.  The coral I made with my 3D cutters, the sea shells were made with silicone molds that came in a Mermaid set.  I used the mermaid tails on another cake I made recently.

For the sand on the Baby Shark cake I used ground up graham crackers.  Below you can see where I placed the shark and the "2" topper on the cake.  I made a few different "2"s with different decorations.  In the end I just went with the plain one you see the in final picture.  I didn't like the one shown below with the white pearls and jimmies on it.  The lettering on the cake was made with fmm Art Deco Alphabet Set 2cm Upper Case.  I'm really bad at piping names using buttercream (especially on the side of a cake), so I just use the fmm cutters for all my lettering.  And what do you think about the nose on the Baby Shark?   I don't like it.  It looks too much like a pig's nose.  I should have use a different shape.  Oh well, live and learn.

And once again the final cake.  Super easy and simple to put together.

Happy Birthday, Kristopher!

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Baseballs or Bows - Cake and Cookies

This was a pretty simple cake to put together.  It is a Baseballs or Bows theme for a gender reveal party.  I think it is going to be a girl, just because I loved how the pink bow cookies came out.

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The pink bow on top of the cake was made from gum paste, and I made the topper using my Cricut Air Explorer.  The topper was made using black and white cardstock and glitter cardstock in gold, pink and blue.  At 10.5 inches in width, the finished topper was a little large for the 12" cake, but I didn't "hate" it enough to make a smaller one.  

I used my Creality Ender 3 v2 3D printer to make a gum paste cutter for the baseball bat and for the question marks on the side of the cake.    If you want to read an intro into 3D printers for cookie cutters you can read my post HERE.  I also used the 3D printer to make the plaque on the front of the cake.  I made an embosser and a debosser version to test both methods.  One pushes the text into the base fondant, and the other has the text raised above the base fondant.

I tried it both ways and the raised text seemed a little easier and less messy to paint.

I painted the text with a mixture of petal dust and Everclear liquor.

I used the same design on the cookies and the plaque cutter, and used a Mini Portable PICO projector to shine the text onto the cookie for piping the letters. 

Here is the cookie set.  Pink bows, baseballs with blue stitching, and the plaque with the caption "Baseballs or Bows".

And here is a picture of just the bows.  I LOVE those little bows.  The are just too cute.  Here is a link to Lilaloa's website showing the decorating steps.

The only problem with the cookie design is that the narrow spot (where the four parts join together) is very weak.  I had two cookies break in that area.  If you picked the cookie up at the tails instead of the loops, it just cracked in half.  Oh the horror.  But I glued the pieces back together with some melted white chocolate. 

To keep the bow cookies from snapping during transport and party setup, I added a piece of cardboard under the cookie.  I hope this keeps them from breaking in half.

So another cake and cookie combo completed.  But I have to say that the more cookie I do, the less I like doing them.  They are a PITB, and so time consuming.  Cakes are so much easier.

Happy Decorating,

Carol