Hello,
I have requested to make superheros cake with figures of spiderman, superman and batman...i thought of using the plastic toppers but the customer want them all to be from gumpaste. And the order is in 5 days

Does anyone have tutorials of making each character; superman, spiderman and batman ?!

Thanks

Pump !

Ladies I was looking all over the web and on cake central for 3 days to find any tutorial for superman and batman figures with no hope !

I hope anybody who have an idea about that help !!

Sorry any cake I've done in a theme I've put toy figurines on...

yeah that's what i told the customer, because after search I found most of superheros cakes has toys figurine and the ones made from gumpaste not so real and more kiddy, but she insisted on try gumpaste first (trusting my talent!)

I hope any of the experts here can help !

5days time table for making an edible cake toppers, bake and decorate the cake is too stressful for me

I dont have the step by step tutorial. Anyhooo, what i would do is get an actual toy to be my model. I would start with the torso, then legs, arms and lastly head. I would do it separately then assemble it using glue, toothpicks or floral wires. If you want it standing, you must use floral wires as it skeleton. This kind of model is too complicated, imho.

But if your cloent is ok in using munny shape, its much easier to do. Check my photos, i already made batman, spiderman and venom using munny as my base shapes

I made a Batman and Robin cake a while back that I handpainted gumpaste "plaques" with the figures. I printed out the pictures I wanted to use for the cake, rolled out the gumpaste, cut out the outlines of the figures, then traced and handpainted (with americolor gels) the figures. It only takes a couple of days to dry the placques, so you have plenty time and they turned out pretty cool. http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2254765/batman-and-robin-birthday

Thank you MaiMai and Dani
unfortunately the client is not okay with munny shapes too i find them cool and funny, plus she doesn't want plastic toys as the kid already have 'em and he wont feel excited if they were on the cake !

anyhow i will try Maimai way first using floral wire and see, otherwise I have no option but apologize to her

If you will be recreating the figurines in gumpaste, you will need permission from the copyright owners of the various superheroes (probably Marvel and DC Comics).

The way I typically handle this kind of request is to have the customer provide written permission from the copyright owners. If they can't get permission, you can still use licensed plastic figurines, which do not require permission.

I was looking for the same thing last week and ran across this. I haven't tried it yet but it may give you a starting point.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1794711/spiderman-tutorial

Sometimes you have to educate the customer and let them know that what they want just isn't possibe due to timing, legalities, whatever it may be, and provide them with alternatives as you have. Then it's up to the customer to decide how to proceed.

Personally I couldn't make that many gumpaste figures allowing them to dry completely in 5 days. And really, I consider that 4 days, because you don't really want to be doing anything more than finishing up on the delivery day.

A

I wonder if all cake bakers worldwide do that (getting copyright permission) ? And are the comapnies easily giving that permission and dealing with that on daily basis?

AMany people don't, they recreate characters and logos without permission. Many get away with it too.

Check out some of the threads on here about copyright infringement.

I recently read an article (that was brought to my attention from A Cake To Remember's blog) about Etsy shops being shut down due to these type of violations (a very light punishment considering how high the fines can be). Company's are keeping a closer eye on people using their brands, logos, etc. for profit since it takes away from their sales.

I know of a bakery that was fined for using a college logo without permission and I believe a friend of Morgans (a CC member) lost her bakery due to the fines.

By all means, do what you want. Jason has a lot of business experience and he's an excellent resource.

Personally, when I have a customer request a character cake I use figurines or leave it to them to get the proper documentation (which I haven't had happen). I'll create a background/scene on their cake, I just explain its for their safety and mine. Other people in my area (mainly unlicensed-I live in a tiny town with three licensed bakers and many unlicensed) will make these cakes, and I've lost sales because I wouldn't. Too me, it's just not worth the risk.

ANora, I wanted to address your last question, which is why I originally started to reply but anyway.

One of my favorite decorators, Fernanda Abarca, works/worked for Dreamworks. On her blog she had created a few cakes with characters like 'The Croods', I asked her if she purchased the rights and some other questions relating to the subject. She explained that she didn't have the rights (and that she didn't think Dreamworks would actually sell them) so she was able to make this amazing cake for them but couldn't profit from it.

I know Superman & Spiderman are from a different co. I can't imagine how much the rights would be from a company like Marvel or DC!

AThanks Smcskinney07, I haven't had insight on the copyright issue before...may be because we live apart from the states? I would find famous bakeries here in the middle east easily sponge pop, spider or mickey mouse their cakes everyday !