April 10, 2005

You Will Need:

10 Cups of Red Crusting Buttercream. Leave white if using an airbrush.
2-3 Cups of Black Crusting Buttercream
1/2 Cup of White Crusting Buttercream for Inner Eyes
Parchment, Waxed or Plain Paper
Wooden Dowel (One End Sharpened)
Styrofoam Wig Head
2 10" Round Cakes
1 8" Round Cake Quartered
13x19" Cake Board Doubled and Covered
Viva Paper Towels for Smoothing
Tip #3 for Webbing
Tip #7 or 8 for Eyes/Spider



Step 1


I baked these cakes using 3" pans.



Step 2


Layer 10" cakes. Cut 8" cake in half
and layer halves together. Cut this
in half to make shoulders. Arrange
cake as shown using buttercream to
glue pieces together. Insert
sharpened dowel into wig head.
Insert wig head into the center
of 10" cake.



Step 3


Trim off any sharp edges.



Step 4


Frost everything with buttercream
including the wig head. Let icing
crust and then smooth with Viva
paper towels by gently laying one
on the surface and smoothing with
your hand.



Step 5 (Optional)


If using an airbrush, now is the time
to airbrush him red. Use several light
coats until the desired shade of red
is achieved.



Step 6


Time to give Spidey his webs using
tip #3 and medium-thin consistency
buttercream. Begin at the "nose"
by making a small circle. Working
outward, pipe on the webs as shown.
I made this image B&W so the webs
would be easier to see.



Step 6 Continued


Back



Step 7


Using parchment, waxed or plain paper,
cut out two eyes (use reverse of image
to make other eye). You might have to
resize them depending on the size of
your wig head. Place the templates
onto the head where you would like
them to be. I placed them on either
side of the "nose".



Step 8


Gently rub the eye templates to
leave an imprint in your crusted
buttercream. Carefully remove the
templates. Using tip #7 or 8 and
black buttercream, pipe around
the imprint. Fill in with white
buttercream. Let crust. Gently
smooth eyes with Viva paper
towel.



Finish


Pipe spider onto chest or use a
plastic one from the party supply
store. Serves about 50.


65 comments:

Tiffani said...

Wow, that is a great cake! I'll have to keep that as an idea. :)

Anonymous said...

Fantastic cake! I am making a Power Ranger for my son for Mon. Feb 20th. If you see this comment in time, can you tell me if there is a need to support the wig head with a board or dowels?

Thanks!

Lisa said...

The wig head is so light but the dowel that goes through the head should reach all the way to the bottom of the board.

Lisa said...

Thanks! I can't take credit for the idea. It's been around for a long time. I just posted the instructions:)

Yes I stored the cake covered loosely with plastic wrap in a cool place.

eema2four said...

I got to your link from CC.
Great tutorial. Thanks.

Lisa said...

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

wonderful! Thanks for posting instuctions! I will be attempting this next week!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for posting this. You did a wonderful job.
I am going to attemp to make it but I had a couple of questions.
#1 Not including baking time, how long would you say this might take to do?
#2 How are you keeping the frosting and the airbrushing off of your base?

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for posting this. You did a wonderful job.
I am going to attemp to make it but I had a couple of questions.
#1 Not including baking time, how long would you say this might take to do?
#2 How are you keeping the frosting and the airbrushing off of your base?

Lisa said...

Thanks! How long depends on your level of experience but decorating time for me was about 3 hours. I think it could be done faster by someone with more experience. Frosting and airbrush color did get on the base. I just wiped off the excess after each step. Best of luck with your cake.

Anonymous said...

I made this cake for my grandson, it was a big hit. Thanks for the posting...

Elena said...

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I have looked and looked and you are the only one who gives clear instructions on how to do this. The cake is beautiful by the way. Thanks again!

Elena said...

Thank you for putting the instructions out there. The cake is beautiful and I will be making this for my son's 5th birthday. Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Hey thanks for the idea! Check out our take:

Cakes by Mona Sculpted Cakes

mollyeve said...

What a wonderful cake. I am going to attempt to make this cake for my friend's son. I am going to try to make one side black spiderman and the other the red spiderman. I have not airbrushed, is that going to be a problem? If you have any tips that would be great. Thanks

Anonymous said...

wow! What an imagination! I never thought to use a wig head for this project. I was struggling with trying to shape actual cake and it collapsing. That you for a great shortcut and showing us dumbheads that it does not have to be complicated.

Unknown said...

great cake!! im attempting it this week:) what recipe did you use for the icing??

Unknown said...

you did a great job! thaks for the directions:) I will be attempting this cake this week. u was wondering what icing recipie you used? thanks!

Anonymous said...

My little girl wants a 3D Supergirl cake for her 6th birthday. I'm going to use your idea here and just change the colors, color the face appropriately and add a red fondant cape! Thanks for the idea.

little e said...

thanks so much for this...it was an HUGE help in making my son's birthday cake. he loved it! all of the kids wanted to eat spidermans head..haha

Unknown said...

I'm doing a 3d bust cake, a batman instead of spiderman cake next weekend. How much fondant do you think I would need to cover this up?

Thanks,
Sandy

HULYA said...

That's really great.I will use the instructions and try it as soon as possible.Thank you for sharing!!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I just had a question. I have the wig head and I was wondering how to get the face smoothed? The one I have has the nose, mouth, eyes, everything. Do you just carve the face off, or fill it in with frosting?? I am going to attempt to make this for my sons 5th b-day.

Thanks,
Erin

Lisa said...

Thanks for all the comments!

Erin, I used a smooth-faced wig head so I would try to carve the front smooth. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Lisa. Where did you get the faceless head?...That sounds funny... I got mine at Sallys, it was all they had.

Thanks
Erin

Anonymous said...

Sandra, I was wondering how batman turned out. I made this spiderman cake a couple of years ago (a HUGE hit!)and was going to try batman this year. I was also thinking of sculpting the mask/cowl and cape out of fondant, and was wondering how you covered the face and left just the chin open. Any tips (or a good hard drying fondant recipe) would be appreciated.

Anonymous said...

WOW! Thank you so much for posting this. I'm going to try this over the weekend and see how it turns out. If I do ok with it I'm gonna do this for a client! THANKS!

Anonymous said...

how do you service the cake? Do you have to take of the head first?

Anonymous said...

Made this cake this past weekend for my girlfriend's son. The cake urned out great and really wowed everyone at the party! Thanks so much for sharing this great cake.

Anonymous said...

It is certainly interesting for me to read this post. Thanks for it. I like such topics and everything connected to them. I would like to read more on that blog soon.

Bohaney said...

Great job! This will go in my to do cakes. Looks very easy and the insructions were straight to the point.! Thanks

patscakes2 said...

Thank you Lisa, I saw your link on Cake Central, if you don't mind I'd like to give you credit when someone asks me where I got instructions and list your link.
Thanks. patscakes210

Lisa said...

Thanks Patricia! I posted my instructions to share with others who were looking to make similiar cakes.

Anonymous said...

Do you think it will be very hard to make a batman cake and use fondant to cover it???
soccergurl_02@yahoo.com

Lisa said...

Not at all. I've had readers make Batman, Venom, Iron-Man, and even famous people using these instructions. One quick tip is to use a plastic Batman Halloween Mask for the face. Best of luck with your cake!

Unknown said...

Thank Lisa......
I have just had a request for a £D spider man cake and I can see how the body is formed but OMG what about the head?

You have saved the day, thanks a million xx

Lisa said...

It's a styrofoam wig head. Good luck with your cake!

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa. As a novice to cake making i have a few questions. If i dont have anairbrush would that be a problem? Any suggestions? Also when i come to server the cake do i take the kitchen towel off before i serve them a slice? sorry if this is a very silly question?

Lisa said...

If you don't have an airbrush, there is red cake deco spray, or you could use red icing.

I think you mean the dowel. When you serve, you'd remove the head and the dowel will come with it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Lisa. Regarding serving the cake to guests, do i need to remove the Viva kitchen towel layer from the cake when i come to serve this? Any help much appreciated.

Lisa said...

The viva paper towels are only used to smooth the icing. After icing the cake, you lay one gently on the surface and smooth with your hand. As soon as you have a smooth surface, you discard the paper towels. You can skip this step altogether if a smooth surface isn't important.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Lisa, you must think i am so silly :-) you cleared that up for me. Will commence making this tomorrow see how it turns out. Your instructions are the best i have seen! Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Can you please provide the instructions to make buttercream crusting?

Lisa said...

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/1948/butter-cream-with-real-butter-for-decorators

Good luck with your cake!

La Familia Crespo said...

Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing these instructions. I'm dying to try this cake, one quick question, in your instructions, when you say 2 10" do you mean 2 layers (like a reg, cake) or do you mean literally 2 10" cakes (making 4 layers)? I guess the same would go for the 8" do you mean 1 layer or 1 cake (2 layers?

Lisa said...

It would be two cakes baked in 3" pans. Then those would be layered to make two layers, not four. Good luck with your cake!

lovetobake! said...

Just wanted to say thankyou thank you THANK YOU! You are such a kind soul and I cant imagine how many kids/adults/spidey fans you have made so so happy ... we make the cake but the thanks first of all go to you. Thank you.

love and best wishes Maryum

Anonymous said...

I would like to know how to make it with and eatable head. Any one knows??

Anonymous said...

I have 12 in, 9 and 8 inch pans, no 10 inch. Do you think 9 would be okay?

Lisa said...

It would be okay. His chest will be more narrow.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa,

Awesome Cake!!! I have a few questions:
1. Where do you buy faceless wig heads?
2. Where do you buy Viva paper towel from?
3. What kind of air brush set do you have, are they expensive, and where did you buy it?

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa,

I was just wondering where you buy a faceless head from? Thank You

Anonymous said...

Great cake and great instructions and pics. I will be making one next week for son's 5th Birthday.

Anonymous said...

can you make the head out of cake sphere / 3d circle??

Adela said...

Hi I think this cake looks amazing and you're an awesome person for providing instructions on making this. I would like to know how much cake mix you used for this cake. Thank you

Anonymous said...

Great job!!!!!..THANK YOU very much for providing pictures and instructions on making this..I love to bake so I can easily follow with the info you provided..yours is the first one I've seen with the shortcut like this..can't wait to make one..

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa, im having trouble getting hold of viva paper towel to do the smoothing out.....can you recommend another way to get the buttercream smooth please?

Unknown said...

I was wondering from where did you buy Styrofoam faceless Wig Head, Did you buy it online or from a shop?

Suresh said...

Hi Lisa

I was wondering from where did you buy Styrofoam faceless Wig Head? Did you buy it online or you bought it from a shop?

Regards,
Suresh

Anonymous said...

@ Suresh Patel .For the Styrofoam head, you can go to a beauty supply store that sells wigs.

Anonymous said...

@anonymous, Viva paper towel can be bought at your local supermarket....

Anonymous said...

These are great instructions. Thank you so much. I am going to make one for my nephew who loves Spiderman.

Unknown said...

Would a head made out of rice krispy treats work?

Anonymous said...

i have been a baker for many yrs, i have to say love this cake , awesome , i have someting to ask , i never did a bust cake before no one has ever asked for one , well i have one coming up this weekend i wanted to ask do you all thing that fondant or gumpaste will stick to the foam head for a day or 2 with it being dirty iced ? i dont have the time or want to shape a head out of rice treats lol

Anonymous said...

What a great tutorial. Thank you very much for sharing :)