Spiderman Cake for Joshua's Fourth Birthday

During the entire month of September, Joshua could not make up his mind what cake he wanted on his birthday.  Last week, he had finally made a decision. He wanted Spiderman Cake.

This is only my second attempt at a fondant covered cake. The whole process intimidated me.It took me 2 days to make this. I made a quick trip to the supermarket after work to get the ingredients on Monday. I baked the cake as soon as I got home. I decorated it last night when I arrived home from work. The decoration is not my idea. I just followed the one I saw from Google gallery.

After crumb coating the cake, I kept it in the fridge to chill while I work with fondant.

After attending the hospitality trade show last month, I was finally able to find  rolled fondant supplier/shop in Bangkok. The shop only sells white fondant (imported from Singapore) so I had to tint fondant in blue, red, yellow and black.

My collection of Wilton gel food coloring

 I tinted enough fondant to cover the cake. I used a little at a time and work my way up until I arrived to the desired shade. I then rolled out the fondant, flipping it and sprinkling a mixture of cornflour and icing sugar while rolling it out to prevent it from sticking. I stopped when I reached the desired thickness and size.

Now, rolling the fondant over a rolling pin is scary so it needs a lot of care.  I gently rolled the fondant around a rolling pin, lifted it and positioned it on cake.

Note:Make sure that the fondant hangs down lower than the edges of the cake before trimming.

I pressed the fondant gently to sides of the cake.With a pizza cutter I trimmed off the excess fondant. I used easy-glide smoother to create a smooth cake finish.

Now let's go to Spiderman. I made this just by looking at the Spiderman tutorial online. I don't have fondant cutters so I used my small pairing knife to do all these. I wasn't able to take pictures of the step-by-step process as my sister and I were both busy doing the  figure. I made the legs, body and head,she made the boots and eyes. She also  helped me get the right shape of the body. I used toothpick to attach the figure.

My sister used pairing knife to cut a small piece of fondant to make  thumb and  pressed the knife gently  to create fingers.

 I laid the figure on top of the cake. I stick the buildings on the sides.

 I then stick the yellow windows on the buildings. I used butter cream to create the web and those black lines on Spiderman suit.The lines on the suit were rather thick. Didn't look good to me. I was up since 3 am, I was tired, my eyes were closing so I didn't bother changing my piping tip. My bad!

Mother nature was not cooperating. Rain poured yesterday. Rain and fondant are not the best of friends. The moisture in the air is messing up everything. My fondant started getting wet and sticky and  the windows started to melt. What a disaster!  So before going to bed, I put a bit of baking soda in a bowl and lay it next to the cake in the fridge. When I got up  this morning, I checked the cake and it was dry. Thank goodness.

Here's the finished cake. It took me four hours to finish decorating but knowing that Joshua will be very ecstatic when he sees it, I'll be happy. My sister said Joshua was a one proud boy today.