Spider-man Birthday Cake for Issac's 3rd Birthday

Our Kochu Varkey (Isaac) is 3 today! It feels like only yesterday I had written a post about him getting his first tooth! Time is just flying by. He has grown from an absolutely adorable baby to a smart and very talkative boy that he is today.  Every now and then he says something that totally amazes me and I realise my baby is growing up! My big boy, mwah!

Ever since we had Chackochis birthday party, Kochu kept constantly reminding me that he wanted a Spiderman cake for his birthday.  Gulp! Spiderman?  Really?? Why couldn’t he have just asked for a chocolate cake covered with M&M’s or a banana cake with chocolate icing or something simpler?

Isaac’s birthday is really today, 12th of August, but it being a working day, we had a small cake cutting celebration with Family in the weekend. A themed cake just seemed too daunting to me. I was, more than once, tempted to just order a cake from the professionals! But then again, I wanted to make it for him, to see his face light up when he saw the cake first thing in the morning. Just seeing his joy and surprise would make up for all the pain and effort needed to make that cake with 2 hyper-active kids and a husband with a fractured ankle! And besides this is the first birthday when he actually understands that it is a special day and it’s all about him! So I certainly did not want to let him down!

Like you all know I’m an absolute novice at baking. I’ve only started making cakes and the first thing he asks me is for a Spiderman cake?? I’ve been stressing over this for weeks!  I spent hours on Pinterest looking at different cake designs. I didn't want to make anything too difficult... I know my limitations! I really liked the Spiderman face design but I really suck at drawing and was sure I wouldn’t be able to get the shape of his head right. Actually, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted do until a couple of days before I started making the cake!

For the cake I decided to go with a layered cake of Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake and the White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Vanilla buttercream icing. The light, creamy buttercream holds it all together without being too sweet or sugary.  I thought even if the cake didn’t look good, at least it should taste good!

The recipes made two 9 inch layers, but I prepared two 9″ round cakes, and two 8″ round cakes of both flavours, so I could get the tiered cake.

Once I had the cakes baked and cooled, Renju used a serrated knife to level them off. I whipped up the buttercream and then divided them into two bowls and added the red and blue colours to each to get Spidey’s colors.

I made some homemade marshmallow fondant earlier in the week to make the spider and also for the “Happy Birthday” letters and the stars. It was the very first time I worked with fondant, and let me tell you it is not a simple thing to work with! Oh the time I spent kneading that thing to get the colours I wanted!!!

I wanted 2 colours that I would have to dye the fondant.  Dividing the fondant into 2 portions, I took one of the portions and placed it in the microwave for 10 seconds.  Sometimes the fondant can be a little hard to work with when you take it straight from the fridge.  Make sure to ONLY microwave it for 10 seconds.  Any longer, and the fondant will be way too soft, believe me, I learned the hard way! And a note to the wise, next time I’d definitely use chocolate colored fondant and then dye black. White fondant just took forever to become black!

Kochu declared it was the tastiest birthday cake I have ever baked. He was very happy with how it looked and tasted as he kept coming for more! J

All in all I was delighted with it. And for someone who's been baking for less than a couple of months it's a pretty good achievement! Kochu loved it which is the most important thing. 

Please be warned, this is just my very humble effort at a Spiderman themed cake.  Sorry I didn’t take any photos during the making process because I was really stressed!

Recipes for the cakes and buttercream icing to follow soon! J