How to Make a Batman Logo Cake

Jackson requested yet another Batman cake for his birthday this year. I wasn't in a cake decorating mood and planned to purchase one at the WalMart bakery. After waiting 'til the last minute, the WalMart bakery was closed and I ended up scrambling to make a cake late at night. 

Lettering is a weakness of mine, so I bought premade sugar letters. Since the colors didn't match with the Batman theme I dyed them yellow using piping gel and yellow dye. (I would have just used diluted gel food coloring if I had any.)

I printed this Batman logo to use as the main decoration. It was the perfect size for a standard sheet cake, but would not have fit well on a round cake. I chose to make candy clay rather than fondant for two reasons:
1. I prefer the taste of candy clay.
2. I could buy a bag of yellow and chocolate candy melts for $3 and not have to worry about coloring the fondant.

Candy clay is extremely quick and easy to make. It only requires two ingredients--a bag of candy melts and 1/4 cup of light corn syrup. It takes two minutes to melt the bag of candy melts in the microwave. Once they are melted, add the corn syrup and quickly stir before it hardens. For some reason, my candy clay turned out especially greasy and I had to use a washcloth to absorb the excess grease.  After kneading the clay to a smooth mixture (less than a minute) I sandwiched it between two pieces of wax paper and rolled it out flat.

I printed two copies of the template so that I could have the oval and the batman symbol separate. I used a knife to trace the oval on top of the yellow candy clay,

and did the same with the Batman symbol on the black candy clay.

Since the clay was still soft and pliable, the black and yellow pieces adhered together well. I laid them out on wax paper to harden overnight. (This step wasn't necessary since the pieces laid flat on the cake, but it would have been important if I had made 3-D figurines.)

I ended up making a double layer sheet cake because the first cake I made was too thin after I leveled it. I wrapped both cakes in plastic wrap and froze them overnight so they would be easy to frost in the morning.

The next morning I whipped up a batch of vanilla buttercream, dyed it blue, and slathered it on top of my cakes. Because the cake was cold, it didn't tear at all. I didn't have to worry about a crumb coat.

Once the cake was completely iced, I applied my Batman logo in the center, pressed the letters around it, and piped a very quick (and unintentionally sloppy) border on the top and bottom of the cake.  Voila!

Birthday Celebrations for Jack

Birthdays are more like birthweeks in our house. Here's how we spent the week celebrating Jackson's birthday:

Monday: I baked a cookie cake to take to Jackson's preschool on Tuesday. Jackson picked out the dye color for the frosting and decorated the cookie with sprinkles.

Tuesday: Per Jack's request, I provided pizza and cookie cake for lunch at school. I emailed the parents ahead of time so they knew not to pack a lunch. There are only 8 kids in his class and I know them all by name because I hear about them constantly. His peers were more excited about touching the babies than eating pizza. When it came time for the kids to sing "Happy Birthday", Jackson said, "Wait. I not have candles." I blushed a bit and informed him that there were no candles. Oops.

Wednesday: The birthday boy awoke early as usual. My goal for the day was to let him choose anything he wanted for food and entertainment, and to sing "Happy Birthday" as often as possible. His breakfast request was strawberries and "special waffles" (aka cinnamon rolls cooked in a waffle iron). We stayed home since Maddie had her PT at 11. Jackson found great entertainment from watching workers reshingle the roof on our next-door neighbors house. We spent two hours outside before he came back in and zoned out in front of the TV.

After lunch, I took Jackson to the park and Sweet Frog for a special treat. I honestly don't know what happened, but we needed an exorcist for Jackson at Sweet Frog. His meltdown included laying on the floor in front of the register kicking and screaming. I asked him if we needed to leave and he said, "No. I calm down now." Gee, thanks! Sure enough, he returned to his normal (albeit tired) self while we indulged in our frozen yogurt. We even managed to sneak in a quick trip to Target afterwards before he crashed in the car.

Thursday: Our morning was busy with the Easter egg hunt and picnic at school, followed by an afternoon at the park. While the babies napped, Jackson and I went through over a thousand pictures on my computer and talked about what a big boy he was now. I later narrowed down my favorite pictures of Jackson to 75, then uploaded them to Walgreens to print.

Friday: I picked up and sorted our pictures. I've made a large, framed collage for the previous two years. This year I decided to display the photos throughout the house. I put all the pictures related to potty-training on the bathroom door, close-ups beside the hallway mirror, messes with food were displayed in the kitchen, etc.

I stayed up until 1 a.m. baking Jackson's birthday cake.  It turned out well, but a Batman cake from WalMart would have been just as well-received and given me the opportunity to sleep.

Saturday: Party time!  Nearly twenty family members filled our home and yard. Jackson asked for pizza, so we had salad and pizza for the birthday boy. The weather was perfect which meant the kids got to take advantage of the hula hoops and balloons my mother-in-law brought over. Jackson didn't understand the concept of waiting to open all of his presents at the same time. He opened almost every present as our family members arrived. Silly boy! After everyone left and we cleaned the house, Jackson spent the evening wearing his new Batman pajamas, riding his new Batman tricycle

I'm overjoyed that Jackson was able to feel so special this week from his teachers, classmates, and family members.