R2-D2 Cake

Hubs turned the big 3-0 in March. I LOVE making caking, so of course I had to do something special for his 30th. He loves Star Wars, so this is what I came up with...

R2D2!!!

Want to see how I made it? I thought so :) Lucky for you I took pictures of the process so I could post this on my family blog. I thought you all might enjoy seeing it too!

You'll want to have all your cakes frosted and all your fondant made. I just stick with white buttercream frosting and blue and white fondant. I also made his arms from rice krispie treats. In total I used 4 layers of round cake (put together on cake circles in sets of 2) along with the rounded tops (that were trimmed off prior to frosting the cakes), about 2 lbs of white fondant and maybe a half pound of blue fondant, 2 pans of rice krispie treats, and somewhere around 3 recipes of buttercream frosting (approx 3lbs).

Writing all that out and thinking about all that sugar makes me kind of sick. What about you?

I started with an ice cream bucket, a couple of nails, and my large wooden cutting board.

I took the handle off the bucket and hammered in the nails.

The bucket was just to add some height without having to bake so much stinking cake. We had PLENTY of cake as it was! The bucket also added some strength to the so it didn't tip so much (though if you look at the final product you can see a little tippage anyway) and the nails helped hold it all in place.

Now you need to frost the bucket. Never mind the weird looks your husband is giving you.

Then start adding cake.

As you put the layers on, leave the cake on the cake circles. I used just some round pans I had - around the 7 inch size, I believe. I did have to trim a little bit though. Also, you'll need to add a few dowels into the middle of the cake for support.

You'll want to add dowels for each set of cakes you add. Simply put the dowel in (to measure it), pull it out, cut it down, and reinsert.

Add the next layer(s) of cake.

And the rounded layers. To do this step, I just piled and frosted the domed tops of the cakes that I trimmed off earlier. I think I used 3 of them, but I can't be sure. Put these on a cake circle too (for more stability).

You'll also want to smooth out all the frosting and fill in any gaps between layers.

Next comes the fondant. I didn't get any pictures of the process, mainly because I was using big pieces of fondant and it took both myself and my husband to get the pieces on smoothly and without them falling off.

Putting the big pieces of fondant on was...not easy. If I had been smart, I would have done skinny long strips instead of trying to put the fondant on in just two pieces.

So here's the cake partway into the fondant process.

You can see it's already started to lean. I think my problem was a little too much buttercream frosting. But at this point, it was late, I was tired, and I was NOT going to start all over.

Here are the arms - no pics of that process either. My rice kripies didn't turn out the best and I didn't want his arms falling apart before we actually had the party. That's why they're laying next to him instead of propped up.

Also, I was going to paint the whole thing silver, but I forgot the dust stuff while I was at the store, it was too late to go back to Michaels to get some, and I just wanted to be done.

What do you think? I LOVE baking and making cakes and this was my 3rd attempt at a big, fondant covered cake. I've also done a Lightning McQueen replica (for Andyroo) and a Dora cake (for my neice). Maybe I'll have to post about those sometime too.

I'm also preparing to do a Thomas the Train cake next month for Andyroo's 3rd birthday. Be sure to come back and check out all the fun Thomas stuff I'll be doing for his party.

And if you ever make your own R2D2, I'd love to see it!!!



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Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednseday, What I Made Wednesday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Lovely Little Linkup, Craftastic Monday, Woot Woot Wednesday, Our House of Joyful Noise, Strut Your Stuff, Get Your Craft On