BATMAN
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This cake was made for my second cousin, Ian, to celebrate his 4th birthday on March 11, 2007 at the Brentwood Bowling Alley in Brentwood, CA.  
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DESIGN
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Ian himself chose the Batman theme many months prior.  Usually kids that young change their mind often.  But every time he was asked, he'd always say he wanted a Batman cake and was going to have a Batman bowling party.  I tried to tease him by saying that I was going to make him a Superman cake instead, but he didn't seem to buy it  = ) .
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The hard part was deciding which Batman.  You wouldn't think there were so many to choose from, right?  But when I started looking online for images and cake pans, I found a whole slew of Batmans as he was developed through the ages.  So, I simply picked the one that I liked best.  I used a discontinued Wilton pan of the 1989 Batman that I found on Ebay.  This was probably  the Batman that I remembered growing up.  
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CAKE
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What else but the famous "Chocolate Blackout Cake" recipe by Margaret Braun.
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FILLING
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Chocolate italian meringue buttercream filling between the batman cake and the sheet cake below.
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ICING
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The icing is vanilla italian meringue buttercream colored with gel food colorings.  This buttercream really takes color well, no flecks, just one even color.  The only thing you have to worry about is that the color tends to darken from the heat of your hand through the piping bag.  If it's a warm day, I occasionally dip my hand in ice water or wear a glove when piping.
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DECORATION
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 No special decoration, just a bunch of colored stars to create the batman image.  I do love the contrast of the bright yellow against the dark blue, gray and black.
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<img src=images/2007_batman_1.jpg>
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<img src=images/2007_batman_2.jpg>
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<img src=images/2007_batman_3.jpg>
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<img src=images/2007_batman_4.jpg>