BAM! Superhero Cake + Cupcakes

My kitchen has been a busy place today! Other than frosting and baking the cake itself, I did all of this, including the cupcakes, today. I would tell how happy I was to hear that Perry took the day off of work since his planned trip to Bozeman was cancelled, but he literally stayed in bed all day. He was pretty useless. It made for a couple *high* stressed times when the kids weren't quite behaving...But he did manage to make Charlotte take a nap with him in the late afternoon so that rocked! She can be quite the little tornado in the kitchen... 

 I haven't really used melted chocolate much before, but I thought that since I volunteer to add cupcakes to the order, I may as well do something I haven't done before. I love how they turned out. Probably my favorite. Can cupcakes be my favorite cake?

 The cake turned out cute too though. Except the spider. I hate the spider. I cringe a little every time I even think about making Spiderman. I guess less specifically, red and black. But one or the other appears on pretty much every cake...

 But I really just love the cupcakes. They were a huge hit with all the kids. I normally don't make chocolate, but this recipe knocked my socks off. And if you haven't already, you should go to my Facebook page, Simply Delightful Cakes, and "like" it. 

The party was at the YMCA in one of their gyms. Kids were running everywhere! Hunter and JP had a lot of fun together. Charlotte ran around by herself. She really enjoyed kicking balloons and chasing them around the gym. She was adorable, until she was just done. Conveniently enough it was the same time that I found Hunter curled up in a corner crying because no one wanted to play with him. Poor guy. (It might have been because he was steamrolling everyone and everything over...) 

Get ready for another superhero cake next weekend too!

Marvel Superhero Cake

I've had a busy week to say the least. July flew by and August came in with guns loaded and knocked me on my butt. I'm so glad this week is over! Going to work has never been so....relaxing?

At work we've had a few people leave us at the front desk (so I'm done with working in the maintenance department!) and we've been busy training a couple new people. One of them was a new hire. As we were talking, getting to know each other, I told her I was a stay-at-home mom on the week days, but also make/decorate cakes in my free time when needed. That lead to me showing her my cake blog. (I like to show them off, what can I say? When you're proud...)

My most recent cakes on the blog were the superhero ones I did this last winter/spring so she saw those first. (I had exactly 8 hours to make and decorate Charlotte's cake. It was kind of a flop...I haven't posted it yet...) Turns our her son is REALLY into superheros too. His birthday is/was this summer, and since he was getting back from vacation near or on it, she wanted to surprise him with a superhero cake for his birthday too. Neither JP nor his friend cared which superheros were on their cakes, so I chose. We made this one super special for him, as he was turning 15. Because he loves his comic book heros, his mom, my co-worker, asked him which ones were his favorite: Iron Man, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, and Dead Pool. Uhhh....I know two of them?

Lately I've found that drawing a picture of what I'm going to make, and coloring it, really helps me get a visual of the cake when it's done. I kept putting off drawing a picture of it because August felt so far away. Before I knew it, it was Tuesday and I needed to deliver the cake Wednesday night. I finally hunkered down and figured out what to do.

I dropped it off at the hotel and then let the kids swim in the pool for while. You know, since I was cooped up in the kitchen for a day and a half... they needed to get out and run around, swim around I suppose.

 Here's what I came up with. This red side with the white face is Ant-Man. I really like how the black Dead Pool section turned out. I was most nervous about that one, but it turned out perfect!

I did Captain America first, since it was his 3rd time appearing on my cakes. I'm a little bummed with how Iron Man turned out. But it works. I saved Scarlet Witch for last so I wouldn't have to work around her cape too much. I left it uneven and hanging off the cake so it looked more like a cape. You can't really see it in the pictures, but it also has her "M" looking thing that she wears around her face. 

His mom said he LOVED it and was impressed with the choice of characters. Little did he know, he actually picked them! Instead of cutting into it immediately, they put it in the freezer so his older brother could see it when he gets home later this week. 

Super Hero Cake, To Go Please!

JP's birthday cake was a hit last month, so much so that I got a cake order out of it. Boo-ya! Not just any cake, but another super hero cake! At first I was thinking, how am I going to make another one without just copying the first one. And then it hit me. Make a rectangular one! 

For some reason when I made JP's cake, I drew a picture of it first. I can't tell you how much drawing it before hand has helped me! When I sketched this one, I colored it too since the crayons were out anyways. Coloring my picture helped me tremendously because then I was able to see what colors I would need and approximately how much of each. I think the longest part of the decorating part is coloring the fondant, or maybe the most boring? So much kneading... I did pretty good dividing it up though, except I forgot to save some white...oops!

 Like I try to do on each cake, I did a little something I hadn't done before. I cut the fondant after I put it on the cake. I really really really wanted it to look like the hand was coming through the cake. How'd I do? In retrospect, I'd have made the tear marks bigger, but it was my first time...

 Love the web on the back of the cake too! Can I admit I like this cake more than JP's? 

I stayed up until 1am Saturday morning getting most of the cake decorated. All I had left to do in the morning before I sent it off was to add the black buildings, red side border, and the make the black frosting for the web and cracks. I finished it up in about 45 minutes first thing after breakfast and then sent it off! 

This is what my kitchen looked like when it was all said and done... Perry has a love/hate relationship with me making cakes. This is the hate part.

My boys get so excited when I make cakes because they know they'll get to play with the leftover fondant. Who needs Playdoh when you have fondant and all of mom's cake tools? Playdoh is a thing of the past... But if you don't watch them, they'll scarf it all down in an instant! Too much sweets = one big belly ache!

Happy Birthday to my Superhero!

I'm pretty sure JP thought his birthday party would never get here! He has been waiting and waiting since Hunter's birthday...in November. But the last few weeks it hit him hard. "How many more days?!" It's a good thing I had it at the hotel again (and that they're super flexible!) because I had to change the date around a few times since Perry had a last minute trip to Spokane. His birthday was actually on Tuesday, but with Perry being gone, we changed it to Wednesday so he could be around for part of it. 

On his birthday, I let him order what ever he wanted for breakfast, which was an egg on toast with sprinkles. Aunt Kim and Nanny came over later that morning and stole him and Charli away so I could decorate the cake. (Cooking dinner with Charlotte around is hard enough!) He went bowling and almost got a strike, played on the train at the mall and went birthday shopping with Nanny and picked out his present. By the time they got back, the cake was almost done. It really only took a few hours... For dinner he requested Mac 'n Cheese, and after I had the water boiling for it, I realized we were out. I instead formulated a plan that was better than just Mac 'n Cheese. We went through the drive thru at Wendy's and came back and ate it in a fort we built in his room. And then Hunter and him got to sleep in it. 

I thought he was going to pick a Ninja Turtle cake again, but I was wrong, JP wanted a superhero cake this year. I was so excited about that decision because I had been wanting to make a hero cake for one of my kids! (In JP's head, Ninja Turtles *are* superheros so Leonardo made an appearance too!) You can see more cake pictures on my cake blog.

 Wednesday finally arrived and he was SO anxious to get to the pool to swim with his friends. He had so much fun with all of them! I could tell everyone had fun - even the moms :)

 JP even went down the slides a few times with Aunt Kim, and once with me. Contrary to his belief, he ended up liking it! 

 Charli got in the pool too! She was really scared of the kiddy pool because of the mushroom waterfall being really loud, but she eventually got in and sat in the big pool. Hunter spent most of his time in the hot tub...

 Just having a green table cloth and green plates, literally, made his day! I'm pretty sure all his friends are aware of his green obsession...

 Despite what the picture shows, he was super excited, internally though. He's like me in social settings and definitely and introvert!

 

 After singing "Happy Birthday" he attempted to blow out his candles from way back in his chair. He really struggled to get the last two, so I hoisted him up after a few more failed attempts. 

He also wanted nothing to do with cake because he was just itching to open all of his presents. He was so excited! 

JP slept like a rock last night. Hunter did too...kind of. He came upstairs about an hour after bedtime and walked down the hall like a zombie. He climbed up on my lap and snuggled in like a cat. Perry and I tried and tried to asked him what was wrong and before we knew it he was out. At one point he was hanging mostly off the couch, with his face on my tummy, and his hand smack in the middle of my face. We're both sure he was sleep-walking, especially since he doesn't remember any of it!