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By Daniella Gray
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A Washington mom who wanted to make her son's birthday cake had no idea her so-called "failure" would spark the sweetest reaction from her 4-year-old.
Axi Bontrager (@frostedtipsmarketing) posted a reel on Instagram of her attempt at creating a red Spider-Man cake for her son's birthday.
Bontrager was going for that signature Spider-Man red for the frosting, but it turned a light pink color.
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"Ran out of food coloring about 3 times. Tried frosting this cake for 30 minutes. Gave up... This webbing piping was 100% harder than I thought I'd be," the text overlay read.
Bontrager told Newsweek that she wanted to honor her son's one request: a Spider-Man cake. "It's his current obsession," the 32-year-old said.
"My mom would do that for me growing up and it was my favorite thing," Bontrager continued. "I also help small businesses—primarily cottage bakers—with social media marketing, so I watch a LOT of cake tutorial videos. I thought I had the technique down. Apparently not so much!"
The cake, she said, turned into a comedy of errors. "I'm relatively good at baking, so I thought this was going to be super simple," Bontrager said. "I overestimated how much butter I was going to need for such a small cake and underestimated how much food coloring I was going to need."
Bontrager had to make several trips to Walmart for more food coloring but by the last trip, accepted it was going to be a pink cake.
What mattered most, however, was her son's response. In the reel, he called out to his dad: "Look! My mom did a good job."
"I did do a good job?" his mom asked. He answered, "Yeah!"
"After I turned the camera off, I definitely cried a little bit," Bontrager told Newsweek. "He's such a sweetheart. He did ask why it wasn't red, but then said it was OK because his favorite color is pink—which I know it's not, it's blue. He just wanted to make me feel better. He's super empathetic for a 4-year-old."
Her video has since racked up supportive comments from parents. "Lots of moms have told me that he is super sweet and kind, which makes me so happy as a parent," Bontrager said. "I've also gotten some amazing baking tips from this and how to get the icing a deep red color for next time."
Despite the icing mishap, the birthday was a hit. "He absolutely loved it," Bontrager said. "He even took slices to his grandparents' house to share because he loved it so much."
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