Star Wars cake

[Pebbles82]

I was going to add this to the cake decorating thread from last year but couldn't find it. So here's the Star Wars cake I made for little boy's birthday. I'm not the greatest at icing, but the cake tasted nice! I used stormtroopers as candleholders! The Candles fitted perfectly into the ends of their blaster guns. However I will never use black icing again! It comes off and stains everything. The storm troopers legs had to go through the washing machine before they could be played with as they were stuck on with black icing which filled up their hollow legs and came out on hands and clothes. He loved his new camera and took lots of photos of his lego with it - and he spent all last night building a lego ship which was another present. As an extra mini present he got a second hand Thunderbird 2 which has brought more pleasure than the camera lol!

[Heather]

That's amazing! :D

[Pebbles82]

Thanks Heather. He wanted cake for breakfast today as well lol! Well a wee bit after breakfast isn't such a bad thing as a one off. The stormtrooper "candle holders" all got stuck on top of his lego ship this morning.

[Thin Lizzy]

Fantastic! So glad little boy loved his camera! And the lego!
Looks like he had a party! The cake looks so tasty! Yummy!

[Pebbles82]

Thanks Thin Lizzy! I am never doing it again though! (That blooming icing) - it took a whole day from start to finish. Next year I'll do something without fiddly icing. The last two years have been easy because I have a pirate ship cake tin - you just turn out the cake, stick some smarties and chocolate fingers on for cannons and a few candles and flags. No icing! He's grown out of pirate ship cakes now though. Must sell it on ebay - I need the money!

[jemmalg]

That's amazing, your boy must've been so pleased with it! :D

[Pebbles82]

We had some more last night. I cut up the remaining half and froze the pieces last week so I'm just defrosting 3 pieces at a time so we don't pig out too much lol.

[Thin Lizzy]

Good thinking!

[Shannonmcn]

WOW! Domestic goddess much? :D That's an amazing cake, I'm happy if I can get an icing name legible on mine! Me and the bf made cake and cupcakes for his little neice who was 4 last week and we were also having to explain why just having cake for breakfast is a bad plan lol

[Thin Lizzy]

I could quite happily eat a cupcake for breakfast but if I had half a birthday cake left over, I would definitely slice it and freeze it.
Greggs do nice cupcakes - yummy!

[BrainGirl]

That is amazing! What flavour was the cake?

[Pebbles82]

Well other half said the cake had to taste nice and not just look good so I used a recipe I've used before than comes out nice - I got it from the wrapper of a cake tin and adapted it. It's a buttermilk sponge cake. I think the buttermilk recipes are american. It's basically a standard sponge cake with less butter and buttermilk add it and then whatever flabouring you want. Last year it was one tall cake so I put blueberries in. This year I made two thinner ones to sandwich so I used orange peel and put blueberry jam in the middle (little boy loves blueberries). It's really easy too as it's an all in one recipe - I think the buttermilk helps it rise and it's not as dry as a madeira cake, but firm enough to cut for shaping.

We only have a tiny mini oven so I had to make two batches and cook both halves of the cake separately, which usually means one half is thicker than the other half lol, plus the cakes come out looking like they've been sunbathing too long on one side. But who cares, it tastes ok! I sliced off the overcooked top bit before icing to get rid of the darker side. The bottom layer was in a 9" x 13" traybake pan and I cut round the stormtrooper tin to get the same shape so there were loads of offcuts which we've also been eating warmed up as pudding lol.

I am never doing it again though! What a palaver. Next year it will be something much simpler.

Here's the recipe if you want it:

400 grammes self raising flour
400 grammes sugar
50 grammes ground almonds (you can substitute this for more flour if wanted)
2 rounded teaspoons of baking powder (raising agent)
half a teaspoon of salt (helps raising agent)
125 grammes proper butter
250 mls buttermilk
3 large eggs (or 4 small eggs or 3 and a half medium eggs)
Grated rind of two oranges (or substitute lemon rind or blueberries or whatever)

Put everything in a bowl, blend on low speed for 1 minute, then high speed for 2 minutes, put in the tin and bake at 175 degrees conventional (or fan equivalent) for about 40 to 60 minutes (prob less for a fan oven). Ready when firm but springy.

That fills a 9" x 13" traybake tin or would probably do two 7" round sandwich cake tins as well. Or it fills a large bundt tin.

[BrainGirl]

I sliced off the overcooked top bit before icing to get rid of the darker side.

Being that it was a Stormtrooper cake, I would have only used the "dark side":rolleyes:

Sorry:mad:

Thanks for the recipe! It sounds delish. Anything made with sour milk seems to come out really moist but firm. I had a rhubarb sour cream cake recipe that was awesome, I wish I could find it again. Besides, it gives me an excuse to buy buttermilk, one of my favourite drinks. I just never seem to buy it for myself:)

[Pebbles82]

Lol! I did think 'dark side' when I typed that. Great minds think alike.

[BexieID]

The cake looks awesome! I made Tom a Lego brick cake for his 6th birthday and it looked more like a 'melted' Lego brick! I just can't do that icing! Pirate ship for his 7th, last year was just the number 8 but I made Angry Birds models to go on it. This year he's specifically said that he doesn't want me to bake a cake! Not having much luck with a Minecraft one either :(

[Pebbles82]

The Icing is pants isn't it - I've avoided it for years. The last two years I kind of cheated and bought a pirate ship mould the cake comes out the shape of the ship and no icing, I just stuck smarties round it and stuck some chocolate fingers in for cannons - and made a mast, which wasn't too hard. The previous two years I also cheated - it's easier when they're little. I made a train cake which is piece of cake if you don't mind the pun. You just buy a chocolate covered swiss roll and some mini chocolate covered swiss rolls, some biscuits with faces and some oreos. Stick a mini one on top of the big one for a funnel, stick the other mini ones behind it for carriages, the face biscuit goes on the front and 3 oreo biscuits each side for wheels. Trouble is once they get to 7 they're hard to impress lol.

Actually the icing on this one wasn't too hard because you just press it into the cake tin first (yes I got a stormtrooper shaped cake tin) then put it in the freezer for half an hour and it comes out like a solid mask (I got that tip on the internet). Except I didn't leave enough overhang so had to cut a separate strip to go round the edge so there's a seam but we don't care about seams.

I think next year it'll just be a round cake with candles. A Minecraft one sounds really difficult!

I quite fancy making a minion one but it does look hard!

[souffle]

Fab cake :) I love making birthday cakes :)

[Pebbles82]

I do as well really, but it can get a bit fraught! Never using black icing again.

[BexieID]

I'm cheating with the Minecraft one as no one sells them (and i'm not to bake one becase apparently he doesn't like homemade cakes), i'm getting the small round decorate your own cake from Morrisons and having a Minecraft cake topper made! I would have just got the A4 size print your own one from Asda but don't fancy eating cake days on end! I could be swayed with a chocolate one!

[Pebbles82]

That sounds like a good idea. Our little boy goes through phases as to whether he likes home-made cakes or not - usually on his birthday he's too excited to eat cake anyway. I froze half of it and we ate it last weekend. It starts getting expensive too doesn't it?!

[Pebbles82]

Well I can't believe it was a year ago, but I have just made another Star Wars cake for little boy's birthday. A Millennium Falcon one this year, with a mould from Lakeland. NEVER again! It half killed me lol. I've not been feeling too well recently so it felt like a mammoth effort taking most of yesterday and some of today. I made two cakes and stuck them together, then pressed the icing into the mould, put extra icing round the sides and decorated the top details with a chocolate icing pen and silver balls and used a long Haribo thing for the hyperdrive at the back.

He was really happy when he saw it (even though I had given up on trying to make it look perfect lol) and loved the candles, which were little wax lego star wars people. It seems his tastes have changed though. The cake, filling and icing were the same as last year, but he said he didn't like the icing, and peeled it off, then tapped the cake with a spoon and commented that it was a bit hard. Probably technically correct, but not the praise I was hoping for lol - he is probably quite discerning as his Mum is a baker by trade. Anyway he was so excited opening presents that he's never that bothered about eating the cake, but it's nice to have one and look at it, and he'd had too many pickled onions and sandwiches to be hungry by then.

The Lego Millennium Falcon is now finished and built and sat next to the cake and he had fun playing fighting games with four lego mini tie fighters. I'm pooped.

http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/20ad34fa-10f1-436f-93a5-8e9fd23e1b7c_zpsa4muwqhd.jpg

http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/d271e517-4ff3-493a-b69f-d9a6977e4a9e_zpslcathqjb.jpg

http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/P3021023_zpsxvtkhhmn.jpg

[Thin Lizzy]

Wow! That is fantastic! Jamie's one very lucky boy! Serendipity - have you thought about making cakes for people as an extra income? You really do excel, I wouldn't want to cut up the cake!

[Pebbles82]

You are very kind Thin Lizzy, but I don't think it's good enough to sell - the icing is a bit bumpy round the edges! I dislike doing the icing, but quite like it when it's finished! I like making cakes but am not that great at doing the decorating bit! Poured on chocolate icing is easier!

[souffle]

oh my goodness you have excelled yourself this year :) Fab cake :) Bet he loved it!

[Pebbles82]

Thanks Souffle - it was a pig lol. Little boy says he wants a grown up chocolate cake next year - whew! Yes he did love it when he walked in and saw it :-) Especially the candles. A lady on ebay makes them out of little moulds.

[climber008]

Wow! That's so cool! I bet my cousin would love to have that cake...

[Thin Lizzy]

I know if someone made me a cake like that, I'd be over the moon. Infact, I wouldn't want to cut into it.
The icing looks great to me!

[Pebbles82]

Thanks! I'd quite like someone to make me one too ha ha.

[flowerfairy]

That is totally wonderful. A real peace of art. Great that you have pictures of it!

[Coco61]

I started reading on page one as we knew about the M falcon present and thought it didn't sound right! Then saw the date. How funny to read about the difference a year makes!
Chocolate cake sounds good for next year. In the meantime the Falcon cake looks fantastic, far too good to cut into! What an effort. Most impressed.

[Pebbles82]

Thank you Coco :-) I'm actually not good at Chocolate cakes so I hope a plain cake with chocolate icing will suffice next year! I have acquired a collection of interesting tins over the last few years. The Pirate Ship cake tin was a hit and got used three years in a row. I always said I'd sell it when we'd outgrown it, as it was expensive, but find it hard to part with now! I'm sure there used to be a cake thread on here once!

[Emma H_amster_]

thats good! :D dont even think i could make that! good job making it! :D

[Pebbles82]

Thanks Emma! The mould has all the details on but it's not very deep so I made two and stuck them together. Now it's VERY deep ha ha.

[Emma H_amster_]

Serendipity- Haha :D

[Piebald]

Amazing! It was lovely of you to go through so much effort! Really a work of art. Plain chocolate from here on out-- er, or "grown up" chocolate. Hmm you could probably make a chocolate Ewok ;)

[Pebbles82]

Lol. Great idea. Chocolate ewok it shall be :-)

[CMB]

Or a chocolate chewbacca.

[Pebbles82]

Ooh now that sounds more difficult CMB! At least Ewoks aren't very big. I think the problem would be making sure it actually looked like an ewok and not a big chocolate blob.

[CMB]

A teddy bear cake tin :) and then adapt he shape a bit. Chocolate icing and use a fork or something to make lines that look like hair.

[Pebbles82]

That sounds like a good idea.

[CMB]

He may not want Star Wars by next year though. The things kids like changes so often.

[Pebbles82]

Lol - that is true. I shall wait and see!