Star Wars cake

Well, here we are, another birthday in our family.  My oldest son turned 8 yesterday, and we celebrated his birthday today with all of his friends at the YMCA.  Great Party!  The boys played many variations of dodgeball and were a bunch of happy, sweaty little guys come the end.

For this cake my son wanted something Star Wars.  He gave me a Star Wars cupcake topper set for my birthday last year (hint hint... he is so thoughtful), so I suggested we make R2 but also use the cupcake set and make cupcakes to feed all his buddies.  He was happy with that plan, and so was I.

So first I made the stand a few days ago.  I used cardboard cake rounds (2 per level) that I covered with thick paper.  I found some sparkly ribbon at Michael's and used it to line each tier.  Then I covered a couple of candle pillars with the same card stock and hot glued them to each level.  It was a little tricky, but it worked.  When I put the cake on top it did wobble a bit too much for my taste (candles probably weren't exactly flat)-- so i need to work on this design a bit more, but it sure came out pretty! And that's all that matters right? :)

For R2D2, I made two 8-inch layer cakes.  They rose nice and dome-y, so I leveled only the bottom layer.  I left the top rounded and used a little extra frosting to make it as much as a semi-circle as I could.  I could have chilled, then carved it more circular, but I didn't want to risk all the crumbs getting all up in my business, so I figured it was fine.  I used marshmallow fondant to make the details and used cute little finger lights that ravers use for parties for the two front lights.  For those- I cut little holes in the cake, and when the time was right, I flicked the little switch on the lights and pushed them into the cake.  They worked great!

So I iced my cupcakes, put on the toppers, and placed them on the stand all nice.  The kids were so excited, and I think it was a success! :)