Monday, October 29, 2012

spiderman birthday cake


To celebrate my son Matthew's 5th birthday, I made him a Spiderman birthday cake to go along with the Spiderman cookies that I made as favors.  And as described in last year's Superman birthday cake post, my son seems to only like vanilla cake filled with whipped cream and fresh strawberries!  So I decided to make the same cake.  Except this time, I wanted to try a different vanilla cake recipe and chose a vanilla cake from the book "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan.


Since the recipe makes two 9-inch cake layers but I wanted to make a 10-inch cake, I increased the recipe to 1.5 times to allow for the extra batter I would need.


Once the cakes had baked and cooled, I used a serrated knife to level them off, and then whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream, and a batch of freshly whipped cream.  I colored the majority of the frosting bright blue, and then piped a ring of it around the perimeter of the cake before filling it with the whipped cream.  This was to act as sort of a border, so that the whipped cream filling wouldn't ooze out the sides of the cake.


Next I added a layer of sliced fresh strawberries, and then covered it with another layer of whipped cream.



Then I placed the second layer of cake on top, and then did a quick crumb coat with the blue frosting.  I chilled the entire cake in the fridge for 30 minutes, and then applied a second coat of frosting.



Then came the fun part - piping Spiderman's face on the top of the cake!  I started by piping a black outline of the shape of his face, followed by a black outline of his eyes, and the signature black web on his face.  Then I filled in the eyes with white frosting using a star tip, and the rest of his face with red frosting and a star tip.


Then to finish off the cake, I wanted to pipe a spiderweb over the entire cake as a background to Spidey's face.  So I piped long black lines extending from Spidey's face, over the sides of the cake, and ending with a small black blob on the cake board.


And then I connected the web with curved black lines.



By the time I finished the cake, it was late at night, so I boxed it up and put it in the fridge until the big reveal.  I couldn't wait to see the look on Matthew's face!


As soon as I brought out the cake at the party, all the kids ran up and crowded around the cake table.


And my friend Helen got an awesome picture of Matthew blowing out the candles!


Happy Birthday, my Matthew!  We love you!!!

*** Update:
I ended up making this cake again, two years later, for my coworker's son's birthday. But this time it was a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse. I was able to take some better photos this time around, so here they are! :)




36 comments:

  1. Hmm what can I say?
    Simply beautiful~~~~~ Love every single of your art work ^^

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  2. This is a beautiful cake. Im gonna make it for my sons 6th birthday party this sunday. Thank you for sharing :)

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  3. Gorgeous. I just wanted to ask what colour did you use to create
    such a vibrant blue ?

    Also if you do not mind sharing the buttercream recipe and how long
    the cake would be able to stand at room temperature ?

    Would love to make this for my sons bday. He is Spiderman crazy.

    Thanking you in advance. x

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  4. So very artistic, luv the healthy choice of layered fresh strwberris...

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  5. What a cute cake. Kathy

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  6. Such a Pretty Cake.
    This is a perfect gift for someone special.
    Your Pics looks fantastic.
    Sooooo cute! Love it all!

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    Replies
    1. thanks @Shrey Patel for the sweet comments! :)

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  7. That cake looks awesome! I am planning a spiderman birthday cake for my little guy and would like to make a cake as awesome as yours. Any chances of you sharing your recipe for the cake and the frosting?

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    1. @Sarai - you can actually find the recipe in my new book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book! Just look for the pink birthday cake with red bow on top! http://amzn.to/1mEKwi2

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    2. This cake looks amazing! I need to make one for my son next month. Where can i get this book? Is it for the spiderman cake?

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    3. thanks @Jasmine Yeo :) you can get the book on amazon! i've also seen it at barnes & noble. look for the recipe for "pretty bow birthday cake" - it's vanilla cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream inside. just decorate it for spiderman instead!

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  8. Best ever spiderman decoration!!
    I will make for my nephew!!

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    Replies
    1. thanks peps@pepi's kitchen !!! :) can't wait to see how yours turns out! :)

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  9. Can i order this spiderman cake for my son?

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    1. @Evone - sure! just send me an email with the date and what size cake you want! oh, and also your location, as i am in the SF bay area (california). thanks!

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  10. What a fantastic cake, Looks amazing and I love the webs

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  11. Your post is really good and i like your article and that way of creation., thank for the sharing...

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  12. so beautiful and unique cake it is .. thanks

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  16. kids loves those cakes.

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  17. thanks for sharing this amazing posting.

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  18. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe with us.

    I will make this for my son.

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  19. Hi The cake looks awesome..I just started baking and curious to know the colors used?Is it sky blue and christmas red?

    Thank you

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    1. @saritha - thank you! i use americolor gel-based food coloring - "royal blue" and "super red" were the colors that i used.

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  20. Wow this looks amazing! What did you use for the black spider lines? I'd love to try this but so afraid I'd make a mistake on the face :-P

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    1. thanks @Emk ! for the black lines i used frosting colored with black gel-based food coloring. you should try it, it's easier than it looks!

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