Batman Cake!

This was such a fun project to make for my soon to be three year old! In this post there are recipes for homemade marshmallow fondant, a dense pound cake with floating bats and a buttercream that holds up to anything!

For months all I heard about was Batman cake. I have no idea where my 2 year old got the idea that he needed a Batman cake for his birthday, but it was definitely happening. I searched Pinterest (of course!), and found an amazing YouTube tutorial from The Icing Artist on how to get a bat into a cake. Mine wasn't quite as perfect as her's but it turned out pretty good. There was also some great recipes for cake and buttercream and since the cake on The Icing Artist was so amazing, I used her recipes for inspiration. Lastly, I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant (inspired by www.faithfullyglutenfree.com) that worked perfectly for my batman cookie cutters I found on Amazon.

There are quite a few steps in making this cake so be prepared. The good thing is, some of these steps can be done ahead of time, like the fondant and buttercream, so that helps.

Steps to make batman cake:

1. Make and bake chocolate cake, cool and cut-out bats

2. Make and bake pound cake with cut-out bats inside

3. Frost with buttercream frosting

4. Make fondant and cut out batman shapes

5. Enjoy Batman Cake!

Hahahaha, if only it were that easy! But seriously, it's fun and kids and adults will love it! Here are the recipes...

Chocolate Cake Ingredients for Bat Cutouts

1 ½ cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup cocoa powder

½ cup boiling water

black gel food coloring

½ cup unsalted butter, room temp

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

½ cup sour cream

*I cut this recipe in half since I was only making enough to cut out the bats.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepare baking pan with nonstick spray or butter and parchment.

2. Add cake flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt to a bowl and stir until combined.

3. In a small bowl stir cocoa powder with the boiling water and mix together. Add black gel coloring and set aside to cool.

4. In mixer add butter, vanilla and sugar and cream together.

5. Add eggs one at a time, fully mixing in after each one.

6. Add ½ of dry mixture to butter mixture and combine then add ½ of the sour cream and combine. Repeat until all ingredients are added and mixed in.

7. Add cocoa and mix until fully incorporated.

8. Add batter to prepared baking dish and bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick is clean.

9. After cake has fully cooled, remove from baking pan and cut out bats using cookie cutter.

Pound Cake Ingredients

¾ cup butter, room temp

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs, room temp

3 ½ cups flour

4 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup milk, room temp

yellow gel food coloring

*This also made quite a bit of batter so I used the extra to make a Naked Marionberry Cake! Click HERE for recipe!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepare rectangle baking pan with non-stick spray or butter and parchment paper.

2. In a bowl add flour, baking powder and salt and mix together until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar with mixer.

4. Add vanilla and mix in completely.

5. Add eggs one at a time, fully mixing in after each one.

6. Add ⅓ of dry mixture to butter mixture and combine then add ⅓ milk and combine. Repeat until all ingredients are added and mixed in.

7. Add gel food coloring and mix until fully combined.

8. Add a little batter to the bottom of rectangle baking pan, no more than ½ inch.

9. Take bat cutouts and place upside down in a line along top of batter in dish (put them in upside down so when you flip your cake after baking they are right side up 🙃).

10. Carefully add the rest of the cake batter around the bats to fully cover.

11. Place baking pan in oven and bake for 45 minutes.

Frosting Ingredients

¼ cup unsalted butter, room temp

¾ cup vegetable shortening

1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

4 cups confectioners sugar

3-4 teaspoons water

gel food coloring

Directions

1. Place butter and shortening in mixer and cream together on medium speed.

2. Add in vanilla and salt and continue mixing.

3. Begin to add confectioners sugar one cup at a time, mixing on low speed until combined then med-high speed for a minute or so each time. After each cup addition, add a tablespoon of water.

4. Add gel food coloring and fully incorporate.

Marshmallow Fondant Ingredients

4 cups mini marshmallows, very loosely packed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (use clear for white fondant)

pinch of salt

1-2 tablespoons water

½ tablespoon white corn syrup

4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

gel food coloring if desired

vegetable shortening for kneading

Directions

1. Grease the inside of a microwave safe bowl with unsalted butter and place marshmallows, vanilla, salt and water in bowl.

2. Microwave for 60 seconds. Stir and ensure marshmallows are melted, if not zap for another 30 seconds and stir to ensure everything is combined and melted.

3. Stir in corn syrup and gel food coloring at this time if you are going to color your fondant.

4. Add mixture to stand mixer along with sifted confectioners sugar.

5. Use dough hook attachment and mix at low speed until everything is combined, then . mix at medium speed for about 1 minute. At this point it's pretty sticky!

6. Remove from mixer and place on surface sprinkled with confectioners sugar. Use vegetable shortening as needed to keep dough from sticking as you knead in more confectioners sugar and create a smooth dough.

7. Wrap ball of dough in plastic wrap and place in a ziplock bag to keep from drying out. Let dough rest for at least an hour before using it.

8. Once you are ready to use the fondant, have vegetable shortening ready to knead once more as you make your creation. This helps it from being dry and gives it a nice shine. I used a flat surface sprinkled with confectioners sugar to roll out the fondant and cut out my shapes.

The fondant will last in the fridge for up to 2 weeks!