Learn how to make a Spiderman cake with homemade fondant and a cake mix or your favorite homemade cake recipe! Perfect for Spiderman parties!
Back in the summer of 2010 my (then) 16 year old daughter asked me to make a Spiderman cake (yes, technically Spiderman should be hyphenated as Spider-man, but for the sake of my sanity I am typing it in this post as Spiderman, no hyphen.) for her best friend’s birthday. I was surprised to hear that her BFF wanted a Spiderman cake, but my daughter insisted that she was indeed obsessed with all things Spiderman. So who am I to question, or for that matter, to say no?
Making a Spiderman Cake with Homemade Fondant
So I set out on a quest to find a fun Spiderman cake design. At first I was going to use this cake pan with a simple white frosting, pipe black frosting around it and drag a knife through it to create a spider web design. Kristen wanted a Spiderman face in the middle, so I could have just gone with this light up Spiderman cake topper… but instead I decided to use fondant.
Yikes. Fondant. I had never used fondant. It had been one of those “I have to tackle that one of these days” things. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. In fact it was quite easy. I found a great video on working with fondant here and used that to come up with my Spiderman cake.
Using homemade fondant for my Spiderman Cake
So on with my adventure in fondant. I had heard that store bought fondant is pretty gross tasting, and have heard some great things about homemade marshmallow fondant, so I decided to make my own. This definitely did not go off without a hitch, there were several issues, even though it did all work out in the end. This could have really turned into a long post, so I trimmed the mishaps down a bit. Also, I don’t have a lot of step by step photos as I was so concentrated (and nervous) that I didn’t want to stop to stage photos.
Making and shaping the cake
Kristen wanted boxed cake and container frosting. I baked a chocolate cake in two 9″ round cake pans. Â When cool, I chilled them in the freezer for an hour so that I could easily saw off the uneven tops with a serrated knife.
Next, I cut a section out of the middle of each cake layer, about 1.5″ wide and set those pieces aside. I slid the two sides together on each cake to make ovals. However, the ovals weren’t long enough to pass as a face, so I turned the cakes a quarter turn, then cut then in half. I separated the two halves and reinserted sections of the pieces I removed earlier. I was able to make longer ovals this way. While this was going quite well, at one point I almost dropped a layer on the floor. I swear I would have cried.
After it chilled a while, I assembled the layers with a layer of white frosting between the two, then I gave the cake a crumb coat. Back into the freezer for another couple hours. I finished it off with the rest of the frosting, smoothed it out really well by misting it with water and smoothing with an icing spatula. Back into the fridge.
Making the homemade fondant
There are lots of different posts and tutorials on making homemade marshmallow fondant. The one that ultimately influenced me the most was this video. However, I must warn you, it’s way too long. She really could have edited a lot of stuff out and still made a great tutorial. I found myself saying “Yeah yeah, get on with it already!” Just sayin’.
I almost hosed up the fondant completely. You are supposed to melt 16 oz of marshmallows with a little water, then mix it with 2 pounds of sifted powdered sugar. (recipe at the end if you want it)
- I forgot that 16 oz. is actually about 1.5 packages  – I only melted 1 package.
- I forgot to add the water to the marshmallows before microwaving them.
- I ended up adding more powdered sugar that the recipe called for because of my other boo-boo’s.
All seemed to work out well, so I wrapped it tightly and let it rest overnight.
Once I had a couple of cups of coffee in me, I set out to finish this cake. First thing I did was take the cake out and trim the cake cardboard with a x-acto knife to be the same shape as the cake. Â This allows you to trim the ends of the fondant easily once you’ve placed it on the cake.
I separated the fondant so I could color the bulk of it red. I pulled out my red gel food coloring and started working it into the fondant, and then I RAN OUT.
Luckily for me the bakery in town had an extra bottle and sold me one. Phew!
Rolling the fondant out was easy, just make sure you use a good amount of cornstarch on the work surface or it will stick. Roll it 1/4″ thick as suggested by every tutorial I ran across. It lifted easily and went right on top of the cake without an issue.
After trimming the fondant (I used the top of my turntable spice rack to place the cake on) to fit snugly around the cake, I then piped on the spider webs.
I drew out the eyes and cut them from fondant using my drawing. Pasted them together with a little water and placed them on top of the cake. I used a tiny paintbrush dipped in water, squeezed out the excess and touched up the cake. Done!
So all in all, even for my first time, I was pretty happy with it! My daughter and the birthday girl loved it, so that’s what was most important to me. Glad I conquered yet another fear that summer!
Here’s the fondant recipe. if you can get through it, watch the video I mentioned above, just remember it’s kinda longish.
If you’re browsing around for more fun birthday party ideas, these Cookie Monster and Elmo cookies are SO easy and a lot of fun to make! You could even have the kids decorate them themselves as part of the party fun.
Spiderman Cake Recipe
IMPORTANT - There are often Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
Print It Rate ItIngredients
- 15 ounce boxed cake mix prepared, flavor of your choice
- 1 can/tub white frosting
- 16 oz marshmallows about 1.5 packages
- 2 pounds powdered sugar sifted
- 4 tablespoons water
- vegetable shortening for greasing
- 1 tube black decorator gel
Before You Begin
- Calorie count is for the fondant only!
- I baked a chocolate cake in two 9" round cake pans. Â When cool, I chilled them in the freezer for an hour so that I could easily saw off the uneven tops with a serrated knife.
Instructions
- Prepare box cake mix in round pans and cut according to diagram.
- Assemble the layers with a layer of white frosting between the two, then add a thin layer of canned frosting (crumb coat). Put into the freezer for a couple hours. Finish it off with the rest of the frosting, smoothing it really well by misting it with water and smoothing with an icing spatula. Place back into the fridge.
- Use the shortening to grease a large microwaveable bowl for the marshmallows, the mixer bowl, your dough hook, and a sturdy rubber spatula.
- Sift the powdered sugar and reserve about one cup. Put the rest into the greased mixer bowl.
- Put the marshmallows into the microwaveable bowl and add the water. Microwave in 30 second intervals until melted, stirring with rubber spatula in between intervals.
- Add the melted marshmallows to the powdered sugar. Lock the mixer and cover the opening with plastic wrap to keep powdered sugar from coming out. Turn mixer on low and allow dough hook to do its thing. Keep mixing for several minutes until the sugar seems to have incorporated for the most part. If still sticky, begin adding reserved powdered sugar, you may use it all, you may not, depends on your weather conditions. It's really humid here, so I used it all.
- Fondant is ready when it balls up around your dough hook or when you can touch it and it's still pliable but not sticky. Remove from the mixer and wrap in plastic wrap. Allow fondant to rest for a minimum of 2 hours, I think overnight was best.
- To use the fondant, knead it several times, like you would bread dough, to get it to a workable consistency (much like that of Play-dough).
- To add coloring, do not use liquid food coloring. Use paste or gel colorings to a handful of fondant, then mix that piece into a larger batch.
- Cover work surface with cornstarch. Roll out fondant to 1/4" thickness. Cover cake and trim excess.
- Use black decorator gel to add webs.
- Cut eyes from white and black fondant. Paste them together with a little water and place them on top of the cake. I used a tiny paintbrush dipped in water, squeezed out the excess and touched up the cake.
Nutrition
Amanda Davis
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LV says
Never worked with fondant before and my daughters upcoming bday party inspired me (as did your tutorial). Did a practice run last night and came up with this:
[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/244uqtk.jpg[/IMG]
Amanda says
It turned out wonderful!
kenji says
Hello,
I’m french, and I saw your cake spiderman.
it’s realy beautiful. I will come try to make your cake.
Thanks for all.
I hope when you understand my english.
When you put your cake, you did not think that she it would be seen in France.
Amanda says
Thanks so much Kenji! I really appreciate that :)
Sharon says
Thanks–i’m going to give it a try! Also, so funny–two of my goals are also to learn to work with fondant and to can sour cherries (for pie)!
Amanda says
Awesome, good luck! Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy it!
Leslie says
GREAT JOB! Just wanted to mention too when coloring fondant… if you need a large portion colored the easiest way is to put the coloring into the melted marshmallows before adding sugar. It keeps the color and is so much easier then kneading. Now if you need more then one color keep the white. Just a trick I had tried and worked. I also have seen the stacking up of buttercream around the nose area to become 3D when the fondant is placed on. Wish I had the guys info.. he was BRILLIANT.
Oh found it
http://youtu.be/baxoe8KYwcw
Amanda says
Grat, thanks for the tips Leslie!
Sj says
Thanks alot!! this was very helpful! i ll give it a try :)
valene says
How did you get the cake cut from two cirles into the oval shape of the face. I didn’t understand what you had wrote in the instructions. Thanks!
Amanda says
Hi Valene :) I have added a diagram to the post that hopefully will help you visualize my instructions :)
Eve Olsen says
I painted the gel color on, like watercolors, and it came out vibrant and fast! I love the fondant recipe!!
Amanda says
Wow great idea!
Cristina says
Hi Amanda,
I am trying to do the marshmallow fondant but I forgot to add the water before melting them. I added the color and icing sugar and started kneading it. After kneading for about 25 minutes (adding water and some shortening) the fondant was still hard. I put it in a ziplog bag to rest but I am thinking on doing it all over again (with the water).
How did yours turned out well after you forgot to add the water? Did you just add more water and Crisco? I have read something about adding glycerin. Do you know how much should I add?
I would really appreciate any help you could give me.
Thanks,
Cristina
Amanda says
I’m sorry Cristina for getting to this so late! Did it work out for you or did you end up making it again?
Des Medina says
I was looking for a Royal Icing Recipe in the net for me to practice on piping a frosting on cupcakes when I come across your site on fondant. I consider myself a newbie when it comes to baking because I started October of last year I really wanted to try decorating my cakes and cupcake with fondant but I thought it’s really hard but after reading your blog I guess it would be nice to try it and see what will happen. I hope I can do it perfectly like your spiderman cake. I enjoyed rreading your blog. Thank you.
Amanda says
Thanks so much Des! I hope you enjoy making the fondant!
Jenni says
Thanks for posting the Spiderman cake. I followed your directions and made my own. It was a huge hit! I had never made fondant or even worked with it before and it turned out great, especially the marshmallow fondant. My son went crazy over his cake, he turned 4. Thank you so much for sharing, you truly saved the day:)
Amanda Formaro says
How fun! So glad it worked out for you and that he LOVED it! :-D
Reena says
Oh yes, also saw somewhere that the food colouring cud b added into the melted marshmallows, for easier colouring.
Reena says
hey Amanda,
thanks for the prompt reply. Yup, I do realise my mistake in trying to work with the cold fondant.
I did see in a couple of other sites suggestions regarding coating the fondant with shortening before wrapping it up, and in yet another site it said to oil the surface we knead the dough on rather than dusting with cornstarch. Wat say u, do they sound like gud suggestions, or those best avoided? This is my first time with fondant, so am quite clueless.
Thank you.
Cheers,
reena
Reena says
Hi Amanda,
Was inspired to try ur spidey cake, with the marshmallow fondant for my sons birthday. Tried out the sample fondant today. Was overall pretty pleased except for the fact that my fondant does not seem to have the smooth, glossy texture urs does. It looked kinda rough n’ dried out. Cud it have been bcoz I left it overnite in the fridge.
Any tips on how I can achieve the beautiful glossy finish u got?
Pls help.
Tks,
Reena
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Reena. Are you trying to work with the fondant cold? You should wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and let it sit until it reaches room temperature. As you work with the fondant, spreading it over the cake, you can moisten your hands with water and smooth it out. That should help with the dry look. If you fondant is not hold together, however, then your issue is not enough moisture and you may need to knead in small amounts of water until you reach a good play-dough type consistency. :) it should be soft and pliable. Definitely work with it at room temperature and don’t store it in the fridge. It should really have rested on the counter over night, but should be fine :)
Amanda Formaro says
I should probably also add that mine isn’t really that shiny either. it has more of a matte finish, you may just see the glare from the window where I took the picture :)
Anonymous says
I am just really starting to get into cake baking and decorating. Im trying it all right now it seems. I try something new all time. Thanks for the recipe for fondant!! It looks like a lot better recipe for it than the ones that you buy already made. ( I think those taste gross!! ) Thanks again!!
Amanda says
Aubri – good for you! So glad it worked, and practice makes perfect right? :)
Aubri says
Thanks for all the info! I tried fondant for the first time yesterday. It wasn't too hard on a two layer round cake, but my princess cake needed some help. (My twins' birthday is today…two cakes) Oh well, I'll have to keep trying! Thanks for the tutorial :)
Amanda says
That is so AWESOME!! Thanks so much for sharing that with me, it looks so great and I am so happy my post was able to help. Happy Birthday to your little guy!
Anonymous says
Thank you so much for this recipe and the easy steps you give. It was my fist cake and I think it came out pretty good, sure not like yours, but I am happy and my 4 year old Son is happy too.
Thank you!!!!
[IMG]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/BrianaMylie/SpidermanCake003.jpg[/IMG]
Amanda says
Hope it turned out for you Vanessa!
Vanessa says
Oh thank goodness you responded so quickly. I appreciate it!!! Whoo Hoo!! I am getting excited!! YAY!
Amanda says
Hi Vanessa! Good luck with your fondant! Yes, overnight on the counter, not in the fridge. I've seen some videos of people do it by hand too, messy! LOL Have fun!