Spider-man Cake

When my nephew asked if I could make him a Spider-man cake for his birthday, of course I said yes. After a week of playing in the mountains for spring break, he followed me home to help bake the cakes to create a Spider-man face. I grabbed a 6" cake pan for the bottom layer and he quickly weighed in..."I don't think that's big enough..."

The cakes are covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. Melt one bag of mini marshmallows in the microwave for about 1:30 with 3-4 T of water. Grease a mixing bowl and paddle with shortening and add the melted marshmallow to the bowl.

Dump a bag of powdered sugar on top and mix until combined. The texture is a bit sticky, lumpy and powdery.

Grease a kneading surface with shortening and knead fondant until smooth:

Here are the cakes. The bottom layer is a 9" round white cake and the top layer is a glass bowl cake- it bakes round and then I carved the sides to a more egg-shaped Spider-man head.

After crumb coating both cakes with buttercream, I rolled the fondant while the kids took control of the camera:

After placing the fondant over the cake and smoothing the sides, trim the excess with a knife or pizza cutter.

Spider-man's head:

Roll blue fondant for the 9" round bottom layer. Cover, smooth and trim away excess.

Using a #3 round Wilton Tip, pipe black buttercream lines from the center down the sides of the cake.

Then pipe arches between the lines to create the spider web face:

3rd row of webbing:

Fully webbed face:

Roll black fondant and cut in various building shapes. Cut small yellow fondant squares and rectangles for the windows of the buildings. You can adhere the windows with a dab of water.