Spiderman cake trouble!

[Triedandtested12]

Hi all I’m wondering whether anyone can help me please. My 3 year old son has challenged me to make him a dinosaur / Spiderman cake for his birthday and I thought I’d give it a go! The idea I’ve come up with involves a two tier cake with Spiderman catching a dinosaur in a web as the cake topper. The trouble is I’m wondering what I could make the spiders web out of. I’d rather it be something edible if possible. All helpful suggestions welcome!! TIA.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hi all I’m wondering whether anyone can help me please. My 3 year old son has challenged me to make him a dinosaur / Spiderman cake for his birthday and I thought I’d give it a go! The idea I’ve come up with involves a two tier cake with Spiderman catching a dinosaur in a web as the cake topper. The trouble is I’m wondering what I could make the spiders web out of. I’d rather it be something edible if possible. All helpful suggestions welcome!! TIA.

Welcome to the forum. The first thing that came to mind was spun sugar.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/spun-sugar-recipe-2107466

Purchased cotton candy is also another option. Or you can make it yourself. The making it by hand does take a bit of work.

Another option is white chocolate

https://food52.com/blog/8712-minimalist-halloween-decor-diy-white-chocolate-spiderwebs

 

[Becky]

He makes that look so easy! I remember watching a video about how to do this a while ago, and I seem to remember the person doing it had problems with keeping the sugar warm enough to work. Maybe he has really warm hands...? This type of candy seems to be very popular in east Asia, but I think they do it in heated vats of cornstarch which makes things a lot easier (I imagine).

@Triedandtested12 If you are able to do the pulled sugar thing it would look awesome. White chocolate would probably be easier, and it would look more cartoon-like, so it depends on what look you're going for. Are you making an edible dinosaur and spiderman too, or are you using toys?

 

[Triedandtested12]

Thank you both I’m open to trying anything! I’m not too adverse to trying spun sugar, but it would be a first for me so I’ll have to get practicing!! The white chocolate option is a really good fallback though

Becky - I’ve bought a little Spiderman figure (I thought that would have been too adventurous for me!), but I’m planning on making a fondant T-Rex. I’ve trawled Google images and Pinterest and found a few that look simple enough (I hope). I think I’ll use a small Easter egg for the body so I can mold the fondant around it. I’ll most likely have the dinosaur sitting down too.

 

[Becky]

Sounds good! I've just found another option for webbing that looks very easy - it's using melted marshmallows. It would be easy enough to test, and perhaps a good option if you want to make a 3D object (ie the dinosaur) look like it's caught in the web:

https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/cakes/spider-web-cake?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

He makes that look so easy! I remember watching a video about how to do this a while ago, and I seem to remember the person doing it had problems with keeping the sugar warm enough to work. Maybe he has really warm hands...? This type of candy seems to be very popular in east Asia, but I think they do it in heated vats of cornstarch which makes things a lot easier (I imagine).

@Triedandtested12 If you are able to do the pulled sugar thing it would look awesome. White chocolate would probably be easier, and it would look more cartoon-like, so it depends on what look you're going for. Are you making an edible dinosaur and spiderman too, or are you using toys?

@Becky, yes he does make it look simple. I’ve always wanted to try this technique for pasta. Years ago when I lived in Hawaii, I used to eat at a Chinese restaurant where they made hand pulled noodles. It’s was extremely fascinating to watch the noodle maker pull the noodles.

 

[Triedandtested12]

Thank you for your suggestions ladies, I think I’ll have a go at the chocolate and then the marshmallow versions first and see how they turn out. With regards to the chocolate, do you think I could make a curved shape by wrapping baking paper around an upside down bowl and then piping the chocolate? I’m wondering if it’ll be too brittle? I was thinking it would be good to have the web in mid-flight so it’s about to cover the dinosaur, if that makes sense?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thank you for your suggestions ladies, I think I’ll have a go at the chocolate and then the marshmallow versions first and see how they turn out. With regards to the chocolate, do you think I could make a curved shape by wrapping baking paper around an upside down bowl and then piping the chocolate? I’m wondering if it’ll be too brittle? I was thinking it would be good to have the web in mid-flight so it’s about to cover the dinosaur, if that makes sense?

Yes, using a parchment covered bowl will work. But molded chocolate contracts when it cools. So the chocolate will actually get tighter around the bowl as it cools. So even though you have parchment paper on the bowl, it will still be a bit difficult to get the bowl

It would be easier to remove if you used the inside of a plastic bowl, like a tupperware bowl. Since the chocolate contract as it cools it will actually pull away from the inside of the bowl. Removing is a lot easier and your chocolate less likely to break.

Another option would be to blow up a small balloon. Place the balloon in a cup to hold it upside down. Then drizzle chocolate over the larger bottom end of the balloon. When the chocolate is set, you can simply deflate the balloon.

Whenever you mold chocolate, it’s always a good idea to make a couple extra as some breakage is inevitably going to happen.

 

[Becky]

Using balloons would have been my suggestion too I've also seen videos of people using ice instead, that can be quite effective.

Alternatively, you could use melted sugar heated to the hard crack stage and make a web over a balloon filled with water (the water dissipates the heat so the balloon doesn't melt). Just dip something in the melted sugar, and drizzle the strands making a cobweb pattern over the balloon.