LEGO / Superhero Cake

LEGO / Superhero Cake

The customer wanted a LEGO cake but also wanted her son's favorite LEGO superheroes incorporated in the design. I studied the figures: Iron Man, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Thor, and The Hulk. I wanted them to all "do" something but I had a little trouble figuring out what to do with Superman and Batman. 

So I decided that I could tie Batman in by using "POW!" "ZAP!" and "BIFF!" signs from the original Batman TV show. I found some images online (they look like Roy Lichtenstein designs but I'm not sure!). I emailed them to a local printer and had him print two copies on heavy stock (one for the front and one for the back). I was going to use skewers but didn't like the look so I bought a package of inexpensive paint brushes and clipped the ends off with a small hedge trimmer, then glued the front and back with the brush in the middle, and let dry.

Next I set up the specialty tools I needed to make letters, make LEGOs out of modeling chocolate, and a Happy Birthday imprint mat for the cake drum.

Using the molds for letters, I made the child's name and his age to match the Batman signs and cut out with an X-acto knife.

I colored my buttercream blue to match the Satin Ice Blue fondant. I used Wilton Royal Blue gel color for the icing. I think I did a pretty darn good job matching!!

  

Using an 11x14 baking pan, I baked three different double-batch cakes (six cake batters, total). I made each double-batch cake (two batches per pan) a different LEGO color so that when the child cut the cake, each piece would be a colorful surprise. For the red, I had to use two entire McKormack bottles of  red, plus some Wilton gel color. It was hard to get it that red!

I didn't realize until I put them all together that this combo resembled the Italian tri-color cookie! LOL!

What I decided to do with the superheroes:

Iron Man: he busts out of a glass ceiling, so I made edible "glass," below (using homemade sugar candy), then busted it with a hammer and used shards around him.

I had Spiderman have a spiderweb. I wasn't happy with this, though. I looks more like a mini-Eiffel Tower than a spiderweb, even though I had practiced first on paper. And while this WAS royal icing, I could not get the draping of icing, from the web to his hand, to stay without breaking.

Superman held the Happy Birthday sign...I couldn't think of anything else to do since I couldn't exactly have him holding "kryptonite" and I couldn't figure out how to show that he has X-ray vision!

Batman: signs

Thor has a lightning bolt...

Hulk likes to crush things!

Below is modeling chocolate. I colored it yellow and used a LEGO mold to put the edible LEGOs around the front of the cake. I did this plus added more broken "glass" around the base of the blue cake so that I didn't have to use a fondant ribbon or edging, like I did on the red cake.

I covered the bottom cake in blue fondant and added the handmade, edible signs, yellow LEGO chocolate, and edible glass.

I then doweled and added the red cake, and cut out thick red fondant with a circle cutter to make the top cake look like a LEGO. I then added the superheroes, signs, and candles.

Happy 6th Birthday, David!