Saturday, March 15, 2008

How to make an r2d2 cake


Also available the 3-D yoda cake tutorial here. A small tutorial so other moms don't have to reinvent the wheel. You too, can make this R2D2 cake and probably do a better job than I did as this project did not receive my undivided attention. I was in no state for culinary perfection, I accomplished this while talking on the phone (as my friends Tamlynn and Lisette can attest), homeschooling my 7 yr old, holding my 3 mo old (in a sling) and keeping my 2 yr from destroying the house.
First I used 1 1/2 batches of my standard wedding cake recipe aka Shelah's best birthday cake recipe (which is really a poundcake) It is good because it is solid, heavy and doesn't crack and supremely tasty (my food phrase of the week). I divided the batter into 4- 6" rounds and 1 bowl with a 6" diameter, and 2 mini loaf pans. (I believe every kitchen should have the William Sonoma set of 11 glass nesting bowls!) Baked them according to recipe directions, wrapped in saran while hot, froze them. Pulled out the freezer 20 min prior to assembly. The day before I also made 1 1/2 batches of buttercream frosting and a batch of marshmallow fondant (using 2-10.5 oz bags and 6 cups of pdwr sugar) and stored them in the fridge. Create a cake base using a small metal mini pie plate and a 6" white saucer from my cupboard. Simply hot glue the metal pie pan (upside down) to the base of the saucer.

1. Frost 3-6" cakes and stack on top of each other and stack on the base(put frosting on the base so it sticks). Place the bowl shaped cake on top and frost. I stuck a bamboo skewer through the enitre assembly to secure from sliding.
2. Even loaf pans to make a flat rectangle and shape into leg shapes. Frost them.

3. Then roll out a rectangle of fondant to wrap around the metal pie pan base to make the center leg (calculate to match the size or your given base- use those HS geometry skills) then roll out fondant rectangle to cover cylinder part of r2d2 and roll out fondant and cover legs.

4. Color part of fondant gray with wilton colors. Roll out to ensure right size- drape the 6 in bowl you cooked with fondant in cut a smooth edge. Then Place circle on dome. Mix wilton silver dust with lemon extract brush over dome to make silver. Create various grills, and r2d2 droid parts and repeat silvering (use a drop of water on back of fondant to make fondant adhere to fondant)

5. Color some fondant blue using wilton colors (again make various necessary shapes- helps to have an r2d2 action figure for general reference- i did not make mine entirely accurate- i didn't have that much time or energy) create various shapes and adhere to fondant. red m&M for red light. Viola R2D2 is done

6. I made a mini cake 6" for "candles and easy party cutting". Frost with buttercream- decorate with leftover fondant to coordinate w/ r2d2.

Yield 1 R2d2 cake and 1 small cake for easy serving and candles. (you can see a close up a shot on my cake blog) Good luck!
PS If this helped you or you have in tips- do post in the comments)

15 comments:

Chellie said...

You did a great job! You are super talented!

LL said...

IMPRESSIVE!!! happy b-day (late) to SS#1, cute guy.

Erin Edwards said...

Thanks for posting your directions! I used them for my son's birthday today and the cake turned out great!

smart mama said...

erin- glad it worked for you- i love helping other moms achieve great birthdaydom!

Anonymous said...

How long would this take to make it? & is it nessary to keep them in refridge ? I'm planing to throw my 10 yr old son surprise party. I love your idea of R2 !! PERFECT>.!

kinza said...

R2 D2 cake is so awsome an cute too
^-^

stephanie said...

Could you share your standard wedding cake recipe as well as your butter cream frosting recipe with me? I am going to make the R2D2 cake for my son's 5th birthday this month. I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

Jen from Oz said...

Hi there. I love your cake, but I love your art even more, especially the paintings of trees. Looking forward to buying one some day. This was a great blog to stumble upon!!

Unknown said...

Did you bake the head in the William Sonoma mixing bowl? I didn't realize they were oven safe...

smart mama said...

yes- they are oven safe to a certian temp- most glassware is- usually there is some notation on bottom

michelleml said...

how do we find the cake recipe?

Great by the way i'll be trying to make this for my son birthday party at the end of april.

Anonymous said...

Help needed asap...
Not sure what lemon extract is. Stupid question I know but not sure what that is referred to here in Australia. I need to get R2's head silver so I have the silver dust but not sure how to get it to stick on to the rolled fondant.

Unknown said...

amazing cake...i am going to try it for my son this weekend. just a quick question, how tall was r2d2's body (minus his head) ie how high were the 4 stacked caked? thanks!

smart mama said...

i'd say each cake layer is abt 2'
so probably 8-9 inches

a Brit Of Cake said...

Thanks!