the cake

Well, Jack's "official" birthday party was this evening, and I have many stories and pictures to share, but for now I will just give you one of the cake.

A couple months ago, when Christmas was over and Jack needed something else to look forward to, we started talking about his birthday. He, of course, decided on a Spiderman birthday theme. So we looked around at what the grocery store bakeries had to offer in the way of Spiderman cakes. Unfortunately, they didn't have MUCH to offer. All of them incorporated this lame-o Spiderman toy that was supposed to be crawling up a wall, but instead it was crawling across the cake. Dumb.
Well then Jack decided that he wanted a Spiderman, Batman, Superman birthday. Awesome, kid. This should be MUCH easier! I called a local bakery that a friend had used last year for her son's garbage truck cake (because we all know how popular those are), and the best they could do was a sheet cake with both Spiderman and Batman figurines on it. Sorry, nope. Not when you're going to charge me $40!
Plan C. Make it myself. I had wanted to avoid this, but I decided that it could be really fun. So I looked online for some ideas. Of course the best ones were super detailed and way too ambitious for me to attempt. Lots of fondant. I don't do well with fondant. I have a friend who took the Wilton cake decorating classes a few years ago and has LOTS of awesome equipment, so I borrowed some stuff from her. I looked at some more ideas online and finally decided what I was going to do. I baked the cakes yesterday morning, layered and filled them around lunchtime, and put them in the fridge. I figured I would start decorating when the kids went to bed and finish putting it together today. Well, I just got in a groove last night and wanted to finish it, so I did. (And maybe God just knew that I would not have ONE extra minute to work on a cake today). :) So, at 11:00 last night, I ended up with a pretty cool finished product. And here is a really enthusiastic Jackson enjoying it:


He really did enjoy it much more than the picture portrays. This morning when he woke up, I said, "Hey Jack, do you want to see your cake?" and all throughout the day, he had to check on it in the fridge. :)

I was quite pleased with myself. The spiders and bats are totally edible, and the Superman "S" was actually the easiest part of the decorating.

I believe I have accidentally worked myself into a corner, though. I can't just buy a cake anymore. I should have thought this through a little more. :)