How to create a simple Iron Man head birthday cake

So as you may have read Alex turned 6 on Friday and he had asked for an Iron man cake, at first I was filled with dread but in fact the cake was relatively easy, normally when I bake birthday cakes, or cakes of some importance something goes wrong, but this one time it didn't (phew)!

I baked 3 large rectangle chocolate cakes, 2 x 3 egg cakes and the bottom layer being a 4 egg recipe to make it slightly thicker.

I printed out an iron man template (plenty found online) and cut the template out of the cakes (each layer separately).

Then layered the cakes on top of one another on the board I was presenting the cake on with a thin layer on vanilla butter icing to bind them and underneath the cake so make it stick to the board.

Following some images online and the template guide I started to carve the cake into a shape, I probably could have shaped it slightly more, but I didn't want to go too far and ruin it-this was the first time I have tried cake carving after all!

Once I was happy I put a thin layer of butter icing over the whole cake and put in the fridge to harden for about 15mins creating the crumb crust (something I probably haven't had the patience for before now but I now know why it is vital)!

This year I bought my icing from Hobbycraft using the Renshaw brand. This is the first time I have used them and I will definitely be using it again, it rolled so nicely, I have never been able to ice a cake without it tearing or sticking terribly, but miraculously this time it worked pretty much perfectly for a novice baker like myself! I used as little icing sugar as needed and followed this ladies tutorial for tips-and it worked for me!

I covered the whole cake with red icing, then used my template for the yellow icing and likewise for the eyes.

For the black outlines I used some black decorating icing also from Hobbycraft, by squirting some into some decorating/writing tubes I own using two different thickness's. I will admit I wasn't as happy with the result of this but I think it looked better once it had dried as I liked the cake much more the next morning! You really need to concentrate and mind your hands with this, I had kitchen roll on hand to clean the nossle regularly which helped.

I was so pleased with the cake, and it got lots of complements, I hear the kids even ate it before they got to their cars (I did feed them honest)!