Darth Vader Cupcakes

Has anyone noticed that there are a lot of October babies? One of my good friends and her husband both have birthdays that are one day apart in October! She was throwing a surprise party for him and she wanted to have surprise Darth Vader cupcakes for him and his friends at the party.

Darth Vader Fondant Toppers

 At first, I had planned to hand sculpt all of the Darth Vaders, but I decided to invest in a mould cuz many people like Star Wars right? I ordered a Darth Vader & a Storm Trooper mould off of eBay and crossed my fingers that it would arrive on time. Thankfully, the moulds came right on schedule, a day before the party! Woohoo!

These Darth Vader heads are made out of black fondant, which I had to carefully squish into the mould and gently peel out to make sure the details aren't skewed. It would have been nice put a bit of sheen on all the Vader heads using vegetable shortening, but I tried on a couple of the heads and the shortening got stuck in the little crevices which I had to pick out with a toothpick. Shall try using vegetable oil next time.

shiny Darth Vader

The Darth Vader heads were toppers for a batch of Devil's Food Cake cupcakes, frosted with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. These cupcakes are moist and chocolatey, without being too sweet. 

photo credit to Daryl's cousin, Stacy

Oh, and I finally got to put by letter press into good use! It's such a neat tool because now I can put any message in neat print onto fondant! Works on cookies too.

Happy Birthday, Daryl!

Since it was my friend's birthday too, I wanted to surprise her with her very own cupcake - a Princess Leia head! I hope she eats the hair cuz that's made with yummy dark chocolate fondant, which tastes like a Tootsie Roll! (As a side note, she said I should've made her Jabba the Hutt instead cuz that's how she feels looks now at 36 weeks pregnant! Haaa.)

Happy Birthday, Isabel! May the force be with you!