I am greatly inspired by a cake by The Dainty Baker. I wanted to try and recreate that for my son'e birthday coming up in two weeks.  I don't need a lot of cake so two of the tiers would be dummy cakes.

My questions is:

*The separators in between, how are those done?

*Is there a mathematical formula or something I need to know for placing each cake on a certain angle? 

*I am assuming the Hulk's hands are either GP or RKT. If it is RKT, is it then covered in fondant/gp? I have never worked with RKT so how easy/complicated would it be?

*The bottom tier seems airbrushed. I dont have access to one. Is therea way around it to get similar effect?

Ok, I've seen wedges made like cake dummies that you can buy for this design.  If you can't find the wedges purchase a square dummy and cut at an angle.

I would make the hands from rkt, Its a lot easier to work with than you thingk.  Made the recipe and while it is somewhat warm (cool enough to touch) shape it into the hands.  Coat with bc or ganache and cover with 50/50 fondant and gumpaste.

There are cans of spray food coloring you can buy to create the bottom and middle tiers.

I would use dowels to support the cakes from top to bottom.

A

Thanks auntginn. I looked for premade wedges and couldn't find much online. I usually get my dummy cakes from *dallasf** and didn't see it there either. I have several square dummy cakes at home and will try cutting it. Any suggestions on self cutting would be appreciated. I will play around with RKT. It just sound intimidating.. Just as much as creating gp figurines :( I do have Wilton luster sprays in gold and silver. I will look for those specific colors at Michaels or will make do with whatever is available. The bottom tier will be a dummy and the top two would be cake. I know this cake is done in Fondant. You think this could be pulled off with BC too with fondant accents? But then preparing this bright shade of red in BC will give me nightmares. I have MMF in red that I made using candy melts..decisions decisions! So much easier when I am told to do this this and this...lol

Last question, if using a central dowel through the whole thing, should I prepare the foam wedges in any special way to prevent particles of foam to get into the cake? Of course, each cake and the foam wedge would be on a cake circle the same size... Thanks in advance..

I would use styrofoam blocks and cut them with a bread knife to get the wedge shape, then cover them with fondant or candy clay. I'd also use candy clay for the fingers, there's no reason to make them out of rice krispies.

I think you will do fine.  Cut the dummy like a wedge of cheese, if that makes sense.  All you need is a serrated knife to act like a saw.  Cut it with a sawwing motion, back & forth.

I like using the rkt because it is lighter in weight.  Gumpaste will be very heavy on the cake. As far as not getting particles of styro, Cover them in fondant or gumpaste and you won't get any on the cake.

Yes you could use red bc, but I wouln't because all the red might taste nasty   If you use fondant you can hand paint the lines of the spider.  Do you use frosting sheets?  If you do you could print a spider, cut it out and  apply it to the cake.

I love this design.  I need a little boy to have a party who would want this cake.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

A

Agree 100%!

A

Great, thanks. I need to research now what Candy Clay is. I have a crafty class for modeling chocolate but haven't tried actually making it yet.

A

Candy clay is just modeling choc made using candy melts. MC would work just as well.

You'll definitely want a center dowel rod for this cake!!

A

Thanks! I have never used frosting sheets but I was thinking of doing it in gp as I did my curious George cake. Once I actually get started on this cake, I may (most likely) be lurking here to get more advise and suggestions. Thanks everyone. I love CC and don't know where I would stand without all the help here.

candy clay or 'modeling chocolate' with those wilton candy melts  is easier (re; time and less mess) to make than RKT (imo)..and I'd make the fingers out of that.  it's just candy melts with some corn syrup mixed in- easy to color that green too if you buy white/vanilla candy melts..lots of instructions/recipes online for it too.

very cute cake.

AThanks everyone for the help and suggestions on this cake. I am sad to inform that my cake was a total disaster!! I was in tears until my sister encouraged me to salvage it. But my son was thrilled and thought it was the coolest cake ever. Anyways, what happened was when I was putting the middle Spider-Man tier on the wedge, the cake started sliding off to one side.. I hate myself for not ganaching it under fondant. I always do but I realized the night before that the whipping cream had gone bad. So I decided on BC. Anyways.. I started dowelling just the bottom two tiers with the wedge in between and that held it up somewhat.. But still.. It looked horrible! Then I decided to yank the dol out again and remove the wedge altogether. Good decision there.. Then I placed an another wedge and put the top tier. The hulks hands kept falling off too...it was my first time with modelling chocolate.. Anyways.. Not attempting another topsy turvy in 362 years...

Attaching a pic...

AIt's not letting me attach he pic.. I will try doing that later from my desktop PC. Again, it is no way close in comparison to the original inspiration. I feel ashamed to even say that I attempted to replicate the original..

Here it is as promised. Don't laugh but constructive criticism is why I lurk around here..

Hulk;s hands kept falling off and getting into the spiderman web..the gumpaste spider broke and so had to put the paper template.. Batman logo chipped and broke.. In short.. disaster Disaster!!  Glad it was for my son who still thought it was a cool cake.. lol

Again, please dont compare it with the original.. No justice there.. It should end up in Cake Wrecks.. feel free to share with them..lol..

Ok, you can laugh and make fun on my account..

AI can't see the cake, but I'm sorry it didn't turn out the way you wanted. I hope you learned something from the experience and keep on spreading those decorator wings. That's when you learn the most is when you're outside your comfort zone.

Sorry, here is the pic

Awe.. jiya, so sorry for your cake wreak, I can't see the pic.  Can you just add the link and then it will either show up or let us follow it.  

I'm sure you've learned valuable lessons, don't give up.  Get back up and try again.  It will come to you.  Maybe try a smaller version.

Now I see it!   Jiya.... I love it!!!!  Yes, its not like the pic you were trying to copy, but it was only meant for inspiration and that's what artist interpretation is all about.

Yes, there are flaws, but you know that already.  Don't beat yourself up, Give yourself a pat on the back.  Say it with me.  ON TO BIGGER AND BETTER THINGS!!!!  

That's what I tell myself and my staff & family when things just didn't turn out the way I wanted them to.  ROFL

Awesome.  

You're son thinks you're the best/coolest mom ever. Enough said!

I'm sure you learned a lot from this cake, my worst cakes turned out to be the ones I learned the most from. Keep your head up!

If you decide to do figures/fingers out of modeling chocolate again, I always use rkt as a base to keep it from getting to heavy and to give the modeling choc something to hold onto and hold its shape.

Those hulk hands are hard! I did an Avenger's cake for my son this year too and I tell you, I don't want to make a hulk fist again for a long, looong time!! 

Don't be too hard on yourself, remember how happy your son is with his amazing mom and cake!

the important thing is that he loved it, so that's a win for you!

As far as the hands go, it looks like the candy clay might have been either too hot or too soft. The basic recipe for using candy melts is 1/3 cup of corn syrup to 1 bag of Wilton candy melts, but they've been messing around with the weight in different color bags. Maybe it was just too soft so they wouldn't hold the shape. I think it's 14 oz to 1/3 cup of corn syrup, so if it was less than that in the bag it might have been too soft.

the middle tier sliding,,, there's not a lot you can do about that once it's decorated, so it sounds like you made a good decision to remove the wedge and go from there. Again, if "the customer" liked it then that's what matters!

AThankyou so much for those kind words and encouragement.. yes.. it was a learning lesson for me and although I felt defeated, my sons' reaction got me back in my good spirits. And then your kind words and encouragement were icing on the cake :)

I will try my hands on the candy melts version for MC. I tried to use Ghiradelli white chips and yes it was a pain. The RKT will be my next endeavor.

Thanks once again for the help through and through and then lifting my spirits instead of turning me into cake wrecks... but you are still welcome to ;)

AAh ha...if you used chocolate chips, then added food color to the modeling chocolate, that would soften it up a lot. Don't give up on modeling chocolate, it's really easy to work with once you figure out the quirks.

AScratching my head here.. so I need to read up more now. I thought I followed directions as per my craftsy class.. need to watch it over again..Thanks for pointing it out...

Ah yes, the type of chocolate does make a difference.  Lesson learned for me.