Crissa's Cake Corner!: Optimus Prime Cake & Cookies

My nephew was turning 5 and he was celebrating this milestone with a Transformers birthday party. This kid usually brings out his fave Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee Transformers with him wherever he goes. And I'm not talking about those small action-figures. He brings full-sized 12" toys!

Optimus Prime cake & cookies

I asked him if he prefers Optimus or Bumble Bee or both and he kept chanting Optimus! Optimus! So, that's what I made for his party: an Optimus Prime birthday cake and cookies!

The cake is two tiers of vanilla funfetti cake, with layers of yummy vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. The birthday boy loves funfetti cake, as does his little brother, who also got a funfetti candy cake for his birthday last Nov. I carved the top tier so that it has a rounded edge. Mmm cake scraps for "quality control" purposes. Haha.

Vanilla funfetti cake layers

carved rounded top tier

hello, Optimus

I had made an Optimus Prime cake for my son's 7th birthday a few years ago, but I didn't want to make the exact same design this time around. I changed up the design to suit a "younger" celebrant, making the details bigger and cuter. Optimus is even "smiling" :)

Smiling Optimus

Now usually, the weather in Vancouver is pretty conducive for fondant cakes, but it's been really hot and humid lately! Bad news for fondant, cuz it's sticker and takes forever to dry! I usually pre-make fondant details 2-3 days ahead of time so that they have ample time to dry at room temperature and can stand up on their own (no aircon here!), but this time, I only got to working on the decorations the day before the celebration.

bottom tier with support dowels

So the fondant things that were suppose to stand straight up on Optimus' head weren't completely dry and stiff yet, but with a l'il support, I managed to make them stand anyway.

side view

details on the helmet

I love how this cake turned out, with all the detailed indentations and layered "tile" look cuz it makes the cake look clean and polished. Best tools are a sharp Xacto knife and a ruler! I didn't really measure or make templates. Just eyeballed it and made sure to focus on the symmetry of the pieces.

The cookies are vanilla sugar cookies with a hint of lemon. I went with an edible image design instead of doing Optimus Prime in royal icing, cuz it's just easier at this point. The kids are home from summer break and I don't have as much time on my hands as I used to!

vanilla sugar cookie canvas
(looks like 4th of July cookies, eh?)

Edible image cookies, in 4 designs

Optimus Prime cookie army

I designed the images on Power Point cuz that's pretty much the only editing software that I have, and got them printed at Edible Images Vancouver. I cut out the circles out by hand since I wasn't too worried about the edges being perfectly round. That's what the "fancy" royal icing edge is for..to hide the edges! Ha! I used a stiffer consistency royal icing and a small star nozzle for that job.

Optimus Prime cookie favours

Once the cookies had fully dried (24 hours at room temp), I packaged them up individually and tied them off with a bow, as they would be the giveaways for the party.

Transformers cookie favours

The celebration was suppose to be a picnic BBQ with an epic water gun fight at the park, but the weather didn't want to cooperate and my sister made the call the night before to move the party indoors. It turned out to be a great decision cuz it was still drizzling on the day of the party, and nobody wants to sit on wet grass at the park!

Optimus cake at the party

Optimus Prime cookie favours

lotsa party foooood!

We still had BBQ, and loads of food, as is typical of family parties. Plus, my sister managed to book a bouncy castle at the last minute, which definitely kept the kiddos entertained!

bouncy castle!

Bumblebee Air-walker balloon

I brought face paint to the party in case any of the other kiddos wanted their faces painted. I practiced on my girls. Not bad, eh?

There was a piñata too! Man, do some of these kids have some pent up anger issues! Lol. Haven't seen a 5-year old swing a bat so fiercely. Maybe we shoulda let all the little kids get a turn to whack the piñata before the biggest boy got a turn and destroyed it in two swings... hahah.

piñata whacking, in progress

Anyway, the highlight for the kids isn't breaking the piñata open. It's that mad scramble to collect all that candy after the piñata breaks! Sugar high, here we come.

piñata candy scramble

The birthday boy was in such a good mood and totally had a blast at his birthday celebration! Check out him out in his padded Bumble Bee costume! (His little brother is going through an Avengers phase, so he was decked out as Captain America.) Happy milestone 5th birthday, big boy Mattias!!