Captain America

My nephew Noah turned 4 a few weeks ago so his Mom, Ela asked me to make a cake for his birthday.  I was hesitant at first since I was out of practice and was afraid I would be in over my head.  On a side note, I made his sister, Julia's first birthday cake a few years ago and Ela made a picture book of Julia's birthday.  Julia loved her cake so much that she took her book to school for show and tell to brag about her amazing birthday cake.  Julia also never let Noah forget that SHE got a special cake and NOAH didn't.  Who knew toddlers could be so competitive???  WELL,  I couldn't let Noah down...I HAD to make his cake.  So in talking to his mom I asked her what he is into these days.  Without hesitation she said "Captain America!"  Uh-oh....that was going to be quite an undertaking. 

First things first, I had to come up with my design...pls note that drawing was never my forte, as proven by my sketch on the left.  My husband said Capt America looked more like a bat or a rat than a superhero....

Mind you, since I don't draw so well, my sketches are really just a guideline as to how I want the cake to look.  The final product didn't really look like my sketch, except for the "bat" jumping out of the cake.

I told myself that this time around, I would plan ahead, I'd start the chocolate mold of Capt America 4 nights before, bake the cakes 3 nights before, ice and cover 2 nights before and decorate the night before. 

Timelines and I don't see eye to eye.  The only thing I was able to follow was start molding 4 nights before and bake 3 nights before. 




This was my first time using modeling chocolate.  In hindsight I should have used gum paste or a 50/50 combination of modeling chocolate and fondant.  I discovered that I have very warm hands so even with gloves on, the chocolate kept softening and I had to stop every few minutes to let the chocolate harden again.  

The torso and face were the easiest part, this took me a couple of hours to make.  It probably would have been faster if not for my warm hands.  I thought it was pretty good though considering I had never done anything like this before and I wasn't following any "how to's" or tutorials.  Oh how easy this would have been if  there was a tutorial for me to follow!


Anyway, the hardest part for me was Capt America's arms and gloves.  They had to be proportional in size to his body and he had to have muscles! I think it took me another 3-4 hours just to do his arms and of course, I was so over it that I forgot to take a picture so you'll just have to see it on the final cake. 

Since this was my first major cake in how many years, I was a little rusty and the cake was still frozen when I iced it and covered it in fondant so as the cake was coming back to room temperature, I was getting a lot of bubbles on the fondant....there was nowhere for the air on the evaporating cake to go!  I had to poke holes in random spots thus the change in design.  I had to cover all my toothpick marks!
I had debated whether or not to put him on top of the cake as soon as the cake was done or wait until a few minutes before the party started.  In the end I decided to go ahead and place him on the cake as Noah's mom was coming in the morning to pickup the cake and since we had another birthday party to go to before Noah's, I wasn't sure if we'd make it in time for me to stick him on the cake. 
Bad idea.  I didn't consider how heavy he was so about an hour after I placed him on the cake, the cake started sagging....nothing terrible but you could definitely see that the front of the cake was getting squished from the weight of the chocolate.  I repositioned him and hoped for the best.  That little mistake was also my farewell bid to at least a couple of hours of sleep.

The day of the party, Noah's mom came to pickup the cake.  After the oohing and aahing, I gave her strict orders to not let the cake sit in direct sunlight or sit in heat as it might melt and sag more that it already was and off they went.

30minutes later, I get a frantic phone call from Noah's mom, Ela...."Captain America's arm fell off!" What in the world??? I was sure the cake was stable when they had left.  The arms were not only dowelled with toothpicks but I made sure there was enough chocolate on the seams for the arms to hold onto the body.

After talking to Ela, I had to laugh because things like this only happen to her.  Apparently she didn't realize the dual climate control on her car was on and it was blowing 70degree air directly on the cake.  Well of course it melted!  All the decorations on the side of the cake were also now on the bottom.  They were able to stick his arm back on so alls well that ends well.  I suppose I should have been upset but at the end of the day, Noah was happy and that's all that mattered.  He didn't care that his cake sagged, all he cared about was that Captain America came to his birthday party!

The village in the background is very fitting, don't you think?? Captain America has come to save the day!

P.S.
Noah and I have a funny relationship.  The kid hates me...well maybe not hate but he does like to tease me in his own funny way.  Everytime I ask him if we are friends, he says "NO!" and runs away.  After seeing his cake, it was the first time he said we were friends, and he said it with a smile!  Of course an hour later, after he's had his cake, I asked him again if we were friends and he said (with a smile) "NO!" and ran as far away from me as he could.  I love you, Noah!