Star Wars themed cake

February 3, 2016 5:37 AM

I have drawn May the Fourth on the departmental cake rota. It has been suggested I do a Star Wars themed cake to as a reflection of the date. I have some ideas but would welcome any suggestions as to what I might do and tips on how to achieve the specific effect.

One of my ideas is to make a cake or pudding which can be lit, then shape it into Anakin in Ep.3 and actually torch it. I would welcome ideas for what sort of cake I could do this with. However, I would welcome other ideas and will pick one based on effect vs complexity etc.

I have reasonable baking skills and some prior experience in home cake making, I am pretty lousy ay fancy decoration.

posted by biffa to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

You could do this with a Baked Alaska. Bake the cake base, then put softened ice cream into the same cake pan/mold. Cover with merengue. Bring a torch to work, set merengue on fire, Voila!

It's easy, just keep it stored in the freezer until show time.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:43 AM on February 3, 2016

I did a Death Star cake a few years ago for my son's Star Wars themed party. Basically a round cake, I cut a convex circle out of part of it for the laser, and a slit down the middle for a trench. Very easy.
posted by bondcliff at 7:43 AM on February 3, 2016

May I direct you to Cake Wrecks, a website dedicated to cake decorations, both wonderful (see Sunday Sweets posts), and awful (the bulk of the posts)?
posted by ringu0 at 7:49 AM on February 3, 2016

I made a Star Wars trash compactor cake. Chocolate cake with chocolate icing, cover cake with a ton of chopped up candy "garbage" (m&ms, snickers, etc, all mixed up). Then I put Chewbacca, Han, and Leia figures on, holding up a pixie stick to hold the walls back. Luke was half buried in the cake with a gummi worm around his neck. I didn't make walls because I couldn't think of an easy way and the cake was for a four year old.
posted by artychoke at 7:53 AM on February 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

Boozy funeral pyre cake in the shape of Darth Vader? (Your department's tolerance of flaming alcohol on the premises may vary.)

Fruit cake on fire
Flaming baba au rhum
Flaming orange rum cake

Oh god, a silicone pan a la frozen Han Solo...
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 8:15 AM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Its an engineering dept and we can always go outdoors, so I figure burning will be ok if we are discreet.
posted by biffa at 9:46 AM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Two BB-8 cakes spring to mind, this one (difficulty level: very) and this one (not as difficult). My sister made a version of the first one and it was much harder than anyone expected, yet it turned out pretty well and was delicious, to boot. Apparently for this cake, sugar sheets are your friends.
posted by Lynsey at 9:55 AM on February 3, 2016

Response by poster: God, I really want that Han Solo carbonite tray, it turns out to cost $40! on amazon uk. Robbers. I wonder whether I get away with low tech large rectangle choc cake with marzipan Solo, played for comedy value though, I'll add that to the 'possibles' list.
posted by biffa at 10:41 AM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

That amazon link also has a link to the ice cube tray with the same image. It's smaller, but it's only $5.95.

You could make cupcakes or candy with it, or ice cubes to serve in drinks.

For the cake, it's probably easiest to just do a google image search for star wars cakes and then see which ones look cool and look like something you can accomplish.
posted by CathyG at 1:32 PM on February 3, 2016

I think that if you were going to set a character on fire, jar jar binks would be a bigger hit
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 4:45 PM on February 3, 2016

Doing a search on "Cake Wars Star Wars" found a lot of things for you to think about. (Note: I also saw an episode of Cake Wars on Star Wars, hence the search.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:34 PM on February 3, 2016

You could go simple and make a Stormtrooper cake. Hershey's Special Dark baking powder makes a very dark cake, almost black. The recipe on the back of the can is my favorite. Pair that with the whitest buttercream that you can make and then coat the sides with crushed oreos. As you know, as an experienced baker, the taste matters more than the appearance. This cake tastes amazing! I do it several times a year. You can also do it as cupcakes. The cake recipe produces a very watery batter that pours easy into cups (use black paper liners). Use the buttercream and then stick mini oreos in some and these:http://www.amazon.com/Cakeshop-PRE-CUT-Stormtrooper-Edible-Toppers/dp/B0162XJ3R4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454588917&sr=8-1&keywords=stormtrooper+cake+topper in others.

Post a sign that says, "These are not the cupcakes you're looking for.
posted by myselfasme at 4:30 AM on February 4, 2016

It's a bit late now, but if you could get some cheap remaindered Christmas puddings you could make an easy Star Killer Base from SW7. Royal icing or butter icing, some plastic Christmas trees and some tin foil to make the middle and protect the icing from the flames.

Some marmalade to stick the two halves together and make the lens thing, you then pour some orange liqueur into the groove in the middle between the tin foil barriers and set fire to it, the marmalade bubbles out like lava onto the plate (and possibly goes on fire due to the high sugar content, you might have to check this first!).

Alternately, you can do the same with a single dome cake (made in a metal mixing bowl) cut in two, possibly an orange polenta cake which is pretty solid and probably would withstand the fire onslaught. You can substitute ground almonds for the flour to make it gluten free and probably a bit tastier, especially after the flambe!
posted by asok at 9:00 AM on February 4, 2016