fantastic four birthday cake

I've had the privilege of making birthday cakes for Marni (my good friend Helen's daughter) every year since she was born! This year Marni turned four, and she was having a four-way joint party with her classmates from preschool, so the theme was Fantastic Four of course! Helen and I brainstormed on ideas for the cake, and eventually we decided that it would be a strawberries and cream cake with the Fantastic Four logo on the top, and each of the girls' names pipes on the sides.

For the cake, I used my favorite vanilla cake recipe (in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) to bake up two 8-inch round cakes, which I then cut in half horizontally to give me four cake layers. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries.

Once my cake was filled, I whipped up two batches of cream cheese buttercream and covered the top and sides of the cake with it, smoothing it out with an offset spatula.

Next I used a toothpick to trace the outline of the Fantastic Four logo, and filled in the white portion with a medium star tip. I also traced out the names of each girl along the sides of the cake, and used a small round tip to pipe their names.

To finish decorating the cake, I tinted the remainder of the frosting with royal blue food coloring, and used a medium star tip to fill in the rest of the Fantastic Four logo, as well as the sides of the cake.

And then it was done!

The girls' names along the sides of the cake - Sabrina, Lauren, Emma, and Marni.

Hopefully all of the girls liked it!

Here's a shot of Marni with her birthday cake(s)!

And one of all the birthday girls!

My kids enjoyed themselves as well!

Happy Birthday Marni!