Superhero Birthday Cake Tutorial with Cake Boss!

If you're looking for a superhero cake then you've come to the right place! We've teamed up with Cake Boss baking to show you how to make a super hero cake in this step by step tutorial.

Super hero cake tutorial

The number of birthday cakes I've made is probably in the hundreds by now, having worked as a cake decorator in a cake shop in high school, but the number of times I've played with fondant can be counted on one hand. I am certainly a novice in this department, but the fondant just looks so pretty and professional and the Cake Boss baking products are so easy and fun to work with that I just couldn't turn down another opportunity to work with them, try out more of their products, and give you guys a tutorial on how I made my son's superhero birthday cake last weekend!

Cake Boss Cakes Baking Products

I knew Cake Boss would have everything I needed, from the bakeware to the frosting. For this cake, I used three large packages of red, black, and white fondant, some small packages of blue and yellow fondant, six boxes of cake mixes, and six tubs of Viva Vanilla Frosting.

This 6-Piece Bakeware Set was a great place to start, and although I only needed the 6-inch, 8-inch, and 10-inch rounds, I'm pretty delighted to have the other Cake Boss cake pans in my kitchen and everything is getting a lot of use. These pans are made of heavy-duty folded aluminized steel and I've never seen cake come out as easily as it does from these. They're every bit as non-stick as they claim, and the wire-reinforced rims allow for excellent grip and structure.

How to make a superhero cake

To make the top layer Superman crest, I used two 6-inch rounds. I cut the Vanilla layer evenly in half on a diagonal and stacked the two layers on top of each other to make a one side twice as tall. I trimmed the rounded edges off after adding a thin layer of frosting in between.

This Cake Lifter is a tool I hadn't used before, but instantly saw its value and potential. Moving delicate layers and tiers can be terribly stressful, and this tool ensures that your layers are transferred safely. It is extremely durable so it can handle heavy creations, and the soft handle has a great grip.

Tip: start early! You can always bake those cakes a few days ahead of time and store them in the freezer while you prep other things. I baked these a full week ahead of time and I'm so glad I wasn't waiting til the last day or two to wait for cakes to cool and firm up. Every layer was leveled, stacked, and then iced in Viva Vanilla frosting. Here's another great tip: use dowel rods for structure inside the bottom layers! Cakes can be HEAVY and cutting a few of these to the height of your cake and placing several of them a few inches apart will keep the structure intact.

Cake Boss decorating tools

Time for fondant! This step makes me as nervous as a June bride. Again, I am a total novice with this stuff, but the Cake Boss decorating tools really help to make it all come together and look professional. I used the Cake Boss fondant smoother to get the wrinkles out, or at least to the point where a nice thick border would hide my amateur fondant flaws!

To make the Superman symbol, I resized this clip art to the measurements of my cake, printed, and cut it out to use as a template. Below, you can see the Cake Boss 9" Fondant Rolling Pin with Guides (or you can get a 20" rolling pin and add the guides for almost the same price). I completely recommend this tool if you want to achieve perfectly even thickness at either ⅛" or 1/16" with a tool that doesn't stick or drag. It is ideal for small jobs and cleans up in the dishwasher.

Same thing with the Batman symbol. There was no way I wasn't going to try and free-hand that on our superhero birthday cake!

When you make your own Superhero cake, make sure to not get corn starch all over the tops of your fondant pieces like I did, ok? Its great for underneath the fondant in order to keep it from sticking to the table, but on the top, it just looks sloppy and doesn't brush off. Figuring out how to fix that is my goal for the next cake. These buildings were some of the things I was able to do days ahead of time, and my Cake Boss Fondant Cutter was just the sharp and precise tool for the job.

Another great tool for precision is the Cake Boss Fondant Ribbon Cutter, which allows you to make uniform strips in adjustable lengths. It is excellent for borders and ribbons! The other picture above shows how I simply rolled out the fondant snake-style to make the Spiderman webbing.

This 9-piece Round Fondant and Cookie Cutter Set is also a keeper! With nine graduating sizes, you can do all sorts of fun designs and effects. We made a Captain America shield that we intended to add to the cake, but it got a little crowded, so we ate it instead. 🙂

There are probably many ways to make a layered cake, and some techniques are better than others, but for this cake, I decided to keep my layers on their 10-inch round and trimmed away the excess after the decorating. This way, the hard base could rest on the dowel rods of the layer underneath, and transporting the tiers was not as scary as it could have been. The gorgeous 12" cake stand is also from Cake Boss, and the white ceramic with delicate icing details make it the most ideal way to showcase your work! It is dishwasher safe and will compliment anything you put on it.