Lego Batman Birthday Cake
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I made this birthday cake over 4th of July weekend for a little boy’s 4th birthday. He is a big fan of Batman and Lego’s, so his mom wanted to incorporate both into the cake. She wanted the tiers to be the basic primary colors – blue, red and yellow – that are characteristic of the basic Lego colors, and then topped with a depiction of Lego Batman. The tiers are covered in buttercream icing, with the Lego Batman and “Devon” created completely of fondant. The bottom cake was chocolate with a ho ho filling, middle cake was devil’s food with raspberry buttercream, and the top layer was chocolate with peanut butter filling. Lots of chocolate goodness!
Not all went according to plan though…
The cake had to be ready to deliver on Sunday morning, so I finished it on Saturday evening. On Sunday morning, we woke up to what my Chief Culinary Consultant coined “The Leaning Tower of Pisa Cake”. The middle layer had shifted forward and right, and the top layer was following suit. After staring at it from every possible angle and trying to figure out what happened and how to possibly go about fixing it, I decided I needed to run off to Michael’s for emergency supplies since I wasn’t at home.
We got there as the doors opened, and I did a Supermarket Sweep (does anyone else remember that game show from the 80′s?! I loved it! No wonder I’ve always enjoyed grocery shopping, ha!) run through the baking aisle, then rushed back. We had 1 hour to pretty much disassemble the cake, fix whatever was wrong, then re-ice the layers and get it looking perfect again. No pressure, right?
After getting the second layer off of the cake, I discovered that the dowel rods had shifted sideways in the cake, which caused the two upper layers to slide and move. After getting the dowels out, cutting a couple down and repositioning, the reassembly began. The cakes got re-iced, complete with new borders (the cake you see above is the re-assembled one), and ended up looking pretty good, with just enough time to spare. I wish someone would have taken pictures of the taking apart and rebuilding of the cake, it would have been fun to see it documented, although I’m sure there would have been a terrified look on my face the entire time!
I can’t even express how big of a help my awesome Chief Culinary Consultant was. He helped mix icing, color it, prep piping bags for me, held the cake on his lap as we navigated the hilly and bumpy delivery route with a not-quite sturdy cake going 20 miles per hour, and provided a huge heaping of moral support. I definitely couldn’t have done it without him!
Loved Supermarket Sweep! Loved even more that the host’s name was so completely unpronounceable. BTW – if my fiance sees this Batman cake, he will want it ASAP.
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This cake is off the charts adorable. The batman top is too cute!
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Oh, now I am worried! I am doing mr first two-tiered caked this weekend. Maybe I will stack just before delivery. Thanks for the story, it’s nice to know they can be fixed. It looks great!
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Michelle on July 12th, 2011 at 10:35 am
Hi Kathleen, Don’t worry! I have done countless tiered cakes before this one and had no problem whatsoever. You’ll be A-OK!
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waaaaay too cute! i bet it was off the charts delicious too kathleen
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Michelle,
you did a great job and if I hadn’t known you’d repaired it, I wouldn’t have been able to tell. I’m sure Devon loved it.
LOVED Supermarket Sweep and always wanted to be on it.
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I LOVED Supermarket Sweep. Go for the hams, go for the hams!
You did a great job! I would have freaked out and packed it in. I guess that’s why I don’t bake cakes for money, only as gifts. Glad it all worked out.
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The final result looks awesome! but it sounds as though you had a bit of a nightmare scenario for a while…
Well done for making it look so perfect in the end!
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That looks great! This little boy is really lucky! I’m sure he loved it
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The cake looks amazing, glad you were able to fix it!
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What a crazy cake-bake story! So glad it turned out. The cake looks fantastic!
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The cake looks terrific. You are so talented. I am glad that you have such good help when you need it.
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I used to LOVE Supermarket Sweep! Glad it turned out well – the cake looks wonderful!
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Wow – awesome. I’m mucho impressed!!
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ahh, baking disasters. last month i made the cutest pink princess cupcakes for my niece’s 3rd birthday. then i accidentally bumped the cake carrier on my car door when i got to my brother’s house and they all fell over
kids didn’t care though, they ate them anyway!
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You did a great job. My son is a Lego fanatic, esp Star Wars Lego. I’ll have to show him this. With all the obstacles you faced the cake was a success!
BTW I loved Supermarket Sweep, it would also explain why I don’t mind going to the supermarket. I just wish they had some prizes in some bins so I can win something. LoL
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So cute! The only show I liked as much as Supermarket Sweep was Shop Till You Drop. Classics!
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You did an amazing job! You totally can’t even tell this cake needed emergency surgery before its debut.
P.S. Loved the Supermarket Sweep imagery–that was one of my favorite shows to watch when I was home sick from school as a kid!
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The cake looks fantastic, I love Lego Batman stuff (I’m a 30 year old child
). And if I remember correctly the key to Super Market Sweep was the prosciutto.
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Hi Michelle,
Well give yourself a big pat on the back, looks great! And then give your Chief Culinary Consultant a big pat too for helping save the day
Care to share your ho ho filling recipe?? That sounds yummy, I am already thinking of possibilities with that one
Thanks,
Kristin
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Michelle on July 12th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Hi Kristin, This is the ho ho filling I use: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/ho-ho-cake/detail.aspx
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Kristin on July 12th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Thank you!!
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You did a good job! I’m sure the birthday celebrant was very happy with his cake, (if only he knew what you and your chief culinary consultant went through in making it).
May I know if you have 2 cake layers for every tier? Thanks!
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Michelle on July 12th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Yes, I do have two cake layers (with filling in between) for each tier.
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Sweet Mother of Blocks! That is a great cake! I have made so many Lego cakes in the past…they are so fun! My boys are teens and older now and have different tastes, but there for a about 10+ years I was making 3 Lego-themed cakes per year. What is really fun is that no matter how they turn out, even in my eyes I thought they could be better, the recipients thought they were the best cakes ever, every year! That is the most important thing…that they have the memory. My boys to this day talk of all their Lego cakes with very fond memories and that is the true icing on the event.
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Your cake is adorable, love it! Also, I was a HUGE fan of supermarket sweep and always wanted to be a contestant.
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Looking at it…you would never know there was drama! My grandson would go crazy for this one….he’s a big Lego fan! Really cool cake!
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YAY for Chief Culinary Consultants!!!! What would we do without them??
And I also loved Supermarket Sweeps..I still watch it on Game Show Network
Great cake btw! looks perfect!
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That cake is adorable!!!
Glad you could fix it in time!!!!
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I would guess that you made little Devon one of the happiest 4-year olds ever! Super job on the cake.
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Holy Batman Cakes….Batgirl…I mean Katrina.
WOW, you are so lucky to have such an efficient consultant, that would be there to alert you to the fact about the cake leaning, and still be there for you to help fix it. He went way far and beyond the call of duty. Don’t know who he is…but he is so in the right profession. Should be a baker not a consultant!
Great Job!
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Michelle on July 13th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
He’s my boyfriend
And the best!
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Beautiful job! I got so anxious just reading your post….it brought back memories of the first time I made a wedding cake for a friend. I was driving to the reception ever so slowly with the cake in the back of my car……cars beeping behind me and whizzing past, some offering up not-so-nice gestures….I was almost there, almost there, and then: A DETOUR! It took me miles out of the way. The cake and I eventually made it, mostly in once piece, but we both needed a little sprucing up once we got there. We all need to channel Julia once in a while.
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Bravo-this cakes looks wonderful and I know you went to great effort to insure that it did! I would have loved to taste every tier-the flavors combos are quite tempting.
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Three chocolate cakes in one. Awesome! I bet he loved it and I bet everyone loved eating it.
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Supermarket Sweet was AWESOME!!!
Just like that cake.
My 4 year old LOVES Lego Batman (he plays the game for Xbox). I might have to give this a whirl when his birthday rolls around.
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You did an awesome job and under pressure no less!
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Well done on the cake!!!
And great job on the fixer upper
These things always bring their own challenges!
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What a story, and what a cake! I think it looks great, and you did a great job.
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Great cake!!! I’m attempting my first two tier cake in a few weeks… I’m beginning my planning now… I was wondered if you had a homemade fondant recipe???
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Michelle on January 15th, 2013 at 6:07 pm
Hi Rasheeda, I do not have a homemade fondant recipe, I just buy it when I need it. Enjoy your cake adventures!
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WOW WHAT AN AMAZING CAKE WHERE DID YOU GET THE CUT LETTERS FROM.OAND BRAND I CAN NEVER FIND THEM I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A WHILE PLEASE HELP ME IF YOU CAN BTW BATMAN IS SUPER CUTE!!!
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Michelle on January 18th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
I actually used cookie cutters in the shape of letters and cut them out of black fondant.
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