Both seemed like good ideas. Of course, I didn't do it EXACTLY the way they did though. I sort of combined the two methods. Here is what I ended up with:
Here's what I did. First, I purchased black licorice, gum drops and Wilton neon fondant (I mean, who wants to color it?! Not I!) I made THIS chocolate cake (I used white whole wheat flour). It's a darker recipe, and I love it. It's sweet, but not sickeningly sweet. I prefer my cakes like that. I poured the batter into a medium and small oven-safe glass bowl. (The difference in size was visible, but not as drastic as I would have liked. I would recommend using a large and small bowls.) I did have to adjust the cooking time. It took about 20 minutes longer than the listed baking time.
Once they were out and cooled, I took off that top portion with the hump so they would lay flat. Then I started the frosting fun. ;-) I made a standard frosting with powdered sugar, almond milk (we have milk allergies here) and butter (actually Earth's Best "not-butter" Butter). I divided it in half and let the dyeing commence. Let me just say how much I HATE black frosting. GROSS. Probably because it took a WHOLE ENTIRE bottle of black food coloring to dye the frosting black!!! Crazy. I was GOING to do orange for the alternate color in the spider, but I didn't have the yellow I thought I did...so purple it was. I did put one tiny drop of black into the purple. It was looking a little too girlie for my son's tastes. That's why it's a bit of a dull purple.
Confession: I did NOT use a crumb coat. I intended to do one, but this was all being done at about 10:30pm the night before...I was tired and cutting corners. ;-)
I used a ruler and marked off the sections of stripes. Then I used a Wilton #18 tip for all of the stars over that whole cake. I am SURE there is an easier way to do this...and one that looks much better. But like I said, no special talent here and the stars are the easiest way for me to make something look nice...ish. ;-)
Once my hand regained some feeling, not joking, I cut the licorice. There were eight 3 1/2" pieces, four 2" pieces and four 2 1/2" pieces. Then I rolled the orange fondant into 8 small balls, and 2 smaller balls. I took the purple and rolled 8 balls. (I am sorry, but that makes me laugh to read it. ha!) I cut the tops off of 2 gum drops for the eyes. Then I used my trusty scissors and cut 2 gum drops in half lengthwise. I took each half and cut it into a triangle. These were the fangs...or the chelicerae. Then I assembled. The back legs consisted of the 3 1/2" pieces and the 2 1/2" pieces joined together by the purple fondant. The front legs were the 3 1/2" pieces and the 2" pieces joined by the purple fondant. For the eyes I gently pressed the small balls flat and pressed the gum drop eyes into them. Then I just pushed them onto the cake, although I have been told that it's best to put a dab of frosting on the back for glue. I'm lazy though. ;-) Then I pressed the fangs in. A word about the fangs (chelicerae)...I know there are not four, but two looked too vampire-y. ;-) I found that it was easier to get the licorice legs into the cake if I used a knife. I just poked the knife in where I wanted the licorice leg to be, and VOILA! It went right in. So the last 5 legs were easier than the first 3. ha! And then...I was done. DONE! DONE!! DONE!!!
So, that was that. Fun little spider cake. Shall I tell you what my son said?? "Wow! A spider cake!! It looks good, but it's wrong!" ha! Nice. Upon further investigation it was discovered that he was expecting a different color. THANKFULLY, he was happy with the colors he got, though I admit...orange would have been better....
Anyway! Another thing pinned and done! Thanks Pinterest for giving me
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