BB8 Cake

I've had the pleasure of making the birthday boy a Finding Nemo cake and a Planes cake for his last two birthdays, and this year, for his 5th birthday, I got to make him a BB8 cake! I'm so grateful for his family's trust and continuous support!

BB8 Star Wars cake

Actually in our discussions for this year's cake, we had finalised a Mickey Mouse design, with a cake frosted in red buttercream, with two black fondant ears, white buttons and yellow shoes & his name. But a week before the celebration, his mummy came back and said that the boy had changed his mind and wanted a Star Wars cake instead, with an R2D2 on top! (and then the day after that, instead of R2D2, he wanted BB8!) Hahahah, oh kids! Totally understand that they are always changing their mind. My three monsters are the same! (they've already picked out their birthday themes for the next three years...)

BB8 sculpted sugar topper

So, BB8 it is! I haven't actually made any sort of Star Wars cake before, which is unusual! So far I've only managed to make Star Wars cupcakes and cookies. The birthday boy's mummy left the design and colour scheme to me, which I love cuz then I can do whatever I want! I was excited cuz this year, I was given the green light to make the figurine out of sugar paste, instead of using toys like for the previous cakes! 

I got down to making BB8 first. I used gumpaste so that he would dry nice and hard in a short time. To make the orange details, I used the a circle cutter to cut out circles out of orange fondant, and then used an Xacto knife to cut out the "X" shape from the middle. I used different sized round piping nozzles to cut out the grey details, and then used veiner and ball fondant tools to draw lines and make indentations on his body. 

ready to roll

For his head, I rolled the gumpaste into a ball, and then cut it in half. I cut a circle out of grey fondant for the top part, and used a knife to make indentations. For his black lens and buttons, I rolled balls out of black fondant and then cut them in half. It's easier to do it this way so one side of the half-sphere is flat, which helps it to stick better, instead of trying to mould a half-sphere. I used wires for the antennae. Let both the body and the head completely dry before attaching the head onto the body, using a toothpick and some royal icing. If you stick it on without waiting 'til it's dry, gravity will take into effect and cause it to lose it's shape ad droop. 

Star Wars font

For the name, I wanted to make it more special than just using straightup letter cutters, so I downloaded Star Wars font and printed out the birthday boy's name in this font. After thinly rolling some yellow fondant, I laid the print out on top and then used an Xacto knife to cut the name out. If you make this in advance like I did, make sure to store this in a sealed container so it doesn't dry stiff and flat before you're ready to stick it onto the cake! 

vanilla rainbow cake layers

Now, for the actual birthday cake, they were 6 layers of ROYGBV vanilla rainbow cake, filled with delicious Valhrona dark chocolate buttercream. Rainbow cake layers always come out thicker than I need, so I always trim the layers so we don't end up with a 6" tall cake (unless that's what the design calls for!)

trimming and filling rainbow cake

I frosted the outside of the cake with navy blue buttercream, like "outer space". Didn't want to go with black, cuz that much food colouring to dye buttercream from white to dark dark black is just scary. 

After letting the cake chill hard in the fridge, I transferred it onto a black fondant-covered cake board, stuck on the fondant name front and centre, and added fondant stars all over (it get's messy if you stick fondant onto soft buttercream). I added a thin orange fondant snake to border the cake, and the placed BB8 on top. Boom, Star Wars cake, done! 

Happy 5th Birthday, Ashton!