This Halloween spider cake was more of an engineering challenge than cake decorating. The legs were gum paste over coat hangers cut and bent to fit. The base was spray painted cardboard with a built up cardboard pedestal (four layers) for the cake). For the top layer of the pedestal I used a piece of Wilton Cake circle, cut to fit under the dome cake for ‘food grade’ reasons.
The cake is a chocolate dome cake baked in a colander (I use an old Bon Appetite recipe called Gypsy John. When frosting use parchment pieces to protect the base and head. I strongly recommend using an oil based black food coloring to color the chocolate frosting because water based food coloring will make the chocolate to seize. The hard part was wrapping gum paste around the wire legs. I colored Wilton Gum paste with lots of Wilton black food coloring. It was then rolled out into a thin sheet and cut into strips about ½” to 3/4” wide, dampened (to make it stick) and wrapped (spiral) around the legs.
The head and jaws are made of gum paste supported on a ¾” x 2” piece of metal stuck into the cardboard pedestal. This piece of metal also supports the legs. The eyes and hour glass on the back are gum paste colored to a deep red.