Superman Birthday Cake!

My nephew celebrated his third birthday party this past weekend and the theme was Superman!  It look a long time to come to the decision and understanding that only one theme could be chosen for the little guy.  I thought I was going to have to pull off a Batman/Superman cake and was totally perplexed about that one until he finally settled on the idea of a Superman party!  It was a really fun event at a kids gym with lots of things to jump on, into and off of...the kids (and adults) had a blast!  My sister made super cute capes for all the kids and had some fun themed treats out to set the theme.  The only request that my nephew had was that the cake be chocolate with chocolate frosting so I used my favorite recipe from http://www.kevinandamanda.com/ and a frosting recipe I came across from http://www.savorysweetlife.com/.  The recipes I used are below:

Cake:

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small pkg Jello instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a very large bowl, mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan of choice (I normally use two 9-inch pie pans). For cooking time, I use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and usually add 10 mins to whatever it says. Then I do the toothpick check, and if it’s not done, I check on it every 5 mins after that. It usually takes around 45 mins for two, 9-inch pie pans.


Read More http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dessert/the-best-chocolate-cake.html#ixzz1l2y4nLn3

Frosting:

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

•  1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened (but not melted!)
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Instructions

1. Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

Recipe by Savory Sweet Life - Easy Recipes from an Everyday Home Cook at http://savorysweetlife.com/2011/04/chocolate-buttercream-frosting/

Using the above recipes my process went a little something like this:

1. Prep cake and bake first two layers in 2 square pans.

2. Prep frosting while first layers bake.

3. Remove cake from oven, wait 10 mins, release onto cooling racks.

4. Bake the second two layers.

5. More frosting...weeee!!!  The mixer is only so big...not large enough for 4 batches of frosting!

6. Remove cake from oven, wait 10 mins, release onto cooling racks.

7. Cut portion off of first two layers to make Superman shape.

8. Place full sized square cake on wax paper covered cardboard, then frost, second full square, frost.  Here I inserted a few straws into the cake and cut them at the top of the frosting to keep the layers together as I stacked.  

9. Place cut layer on top of stack, frost, next layer, frost...then frost the whole thing!...Like I said...there is always lots of frosting on my birthday cakes!

10. Start decorating!  I printed an image of the Superman logo and set it next to the cake and then applied Sixlets candies (I bought mine at Party City) to the top of the cake to achieve the logo first. 

11. Then I would go around the four sides and follow a pattern of sixlets around and around so it looked like they were angled stripes...I think it turned out super cute!

12.  With the remainder cake (cut from the square layer to make Superman Logo), I attempted to make Cake Balls.  I mixed the cake with frosting and then dropped spoonfuls onto a baking sheet and put it in the freezer for a few minutes.  Then I removed the sheet, rolled the spoonfuls into a ball shape and dipped them in Candy Coating and applied cute deco to jazz it up!

I was so happy that this cake came together and it was a big hit at the party!  I am always holding my breath the whole way driving to the party when have a cake like this on my lap.  I kept telling myself..."it's ok...if he hits a pot hole we can just go to Publix...it will all be fine..." Haha...luckily we didn't have to make any stops on our way there!

Happy Baking and Happy Superman Birthday to my Super Nephew!