star wars birthday cake with handmade fondant luke and leia cake toppers

Usually it takes me a half year (sometimes a year!) to blog about something that I've baked, but this time I wanted to get this out in time for May the Fourth (be with you)! Anyway, I'm so honored to be able to say that I've made Marni's birthday cake for her every year since she was born, including her the cake for her mama's baby shower! This year for her 6th birthday, she was going to have a Star Wars themed party with her classmate Wyatt, who is her birthday twin, so what better way to represent the birthday twins than Luke and Leia toppers that look like them!

I got start on making the toppers about a week before the party, so that they would have enough time to dry and harden completely. While I used white fondant to form the bodies, I ended up using this pack of natural skin tone fondant for the heads, just to save time on tinting my fondant with food coloring, especially since this pack had most of the colors that I would be needing (for the heads, hands, and hair)!

For Leia, I formed sleeves with white fondant, and then use a bit of black gel-based food coloring added to white fondant, to create a silver belt for her dress.

For Luke, I also formed sleeves (but less bell-shaped than Leia's sleeves), and then used the lighter brown from the fondant pack for the belt. For the belt buckle, I used the same silver fondant that I used for Leia's belt. Then I used the back of a butter knife to make impressions in Luke's clothes to mimick the fold in his robe, as well a crease to form his pants.

Then I used the skin tone from the fondant pack to form the hands, also using the back of a butter knife for form impressions for the fingers.

For Leia's hair, I used the black from the fondant pack to roll long ropes (since Marni has black hair), which I then formed into her Leia's cinnamon-roll hair buns.

Marni is also known for her signature bangs, so I made sure to include that on this version of Leia. And for Luke's hair, I used the dark brown from the fondant pack (since Wyatt has brown hair).

Then I attached the heads to the bodies with a toothpick to hold them together, and then added their eyes and smiles with an edible food marker.

We also wanted to include Marni and Wyatt's names on the cake, so I drew their names out in the Star Wars font, which I then cut out of paper to be used as a template. Then I tinted fondant with golden yellow and then rolled it out thin, before using a paring knife to cut the letters out.

When it was time to make the cake, I baked up two 8-inch cakes using my favorite vanilla cake recipe (which can be found in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), let them cool, and then cut them in half horizontally, giving me four cake layers. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and sliced fresh strawberries.

Once the cake was stacked and assembled, I whipped up a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream frosting (you can also find the recipe in my book!), and tinted it with black gel-based food coloring. Then I covered the top and sides of the cake with a quick crumb coat of frosting, let it chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, and then added a final coat of frosting before smoothing it out with an offset spatula (a bench scraper is also a nice tool for this!)

Once the cake was smooth, I used a food-safe paintbrush, dipped in a mixture of gold luster dust and water, to make gold splatter stars all over the cake. This was my first time attempting this technique, and it was so much fun!

After letting the cake chill overnight in the fridge, I was ready to decorate!

First I added my fondant letters, secured with a bit of buttercream.

Then I was ready to add my fondant toppers! Here they are ready to go on top of the cake.

I made sure to secure them to the cake with toothpicks, so that they wouldn't fall over during the drive to the party.

Wheeeeeee! I'm so happy with how this cake turned out!

I couldn't wait to Marni to see the cake!

I also made a 10-inch coffee chiffon cake (for the adults!), filled with espresso whipped cream and covered with white whipped cream, and decorate with rainbow sprinkles surrounding the number 6.

And now I leave you with some adroable pics from the party!

Happy Birthday, Marni and Wyatt!

animal kingdom birthday cake

My good friend Helen has an adorable daughter named Marni, who I've been making birthday cakes for since she was born! Since her birthday party is coming up this weeked, I thought I'd better get around to posting her birthday cake from last January! (So sorry for the delay, where does the time go?!)

The theme for her birthday party last year was "Animal Kingdom", and it was a five-way party with some of her friends from class. Each child picked an animal to represent them on the cake, and I had decided to make them as flat fondant characters to go around the sides of the cake.

First: Marni chose a giraffe, and I started by tinting fondant with golden yellow gel-based food coloring, and then rolled out and cut my shapes. For the head I used a circle cutter, but for the body and ears I used a knife to free-form cut my shapes out. 

For the details, I tinted fondant with chocolate brown for the muzzle, mane, and spots (with which I used a medium round piping tip to cut out), and for the feet and horns (antlers?) I used fondant tinted with chocolate brown and a bit of super black to achieve a darker brown.

Second: Marni's friend Lauren chose a monkey, so I used fondant tinted with chocolate brown. The steps were basically the same as the giraffe, using circle cutters where ever I could, and otherwise using a paring knife to cut out my shapes.

For the face, belly, hands and feet, I used ivory to tint my fondant. And a heart-shaped cutter worked out great for top 3/4 of the face.

Third: Marni's friend Emma chose an elephant, so I used a tiny bit of super black to tint my fondant a light gray color (use sparingly, as the gray can get dark very fast!) Here, heart-shaped cutters worked out create for the ears! (I used this set of nested heart-shaped cutters).

Fourth: Marni's friend Sabrina chose a penguin, so I used super black to tint my fondant, and a combination of nested circle cutters and nested heart-shaped cutters to assemble the penguin with black and white fondant.

For the details, I tinted my fondant with orange, and used a paring knife to cut out my shapes.

Fifth: Marni's friend Wyatt chose an owl, so I tinted my fondant with chocolate brown and a bit of super black to get a darker color brown. I also used white fondant for the eyes, and orange tinted fondant for the feet.

After finishing all of the fondant details and using an edible marker to add eyes and other details, I was done! Here's how all of the animals came out:

Aren't they cute? :)

And instead of writing all of their names on the cake, I made little leaves out of leaf green fondant and a leaf cutter, and used an edible marker to write their names on them.

For the cake, I made 1.5 batches of my favorite vanilla cake in two 10-inch round cake pans (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), and after it was baked and cooled I sliced each cake in half horizontally to give me four cake layers. Then I filled the layers with fresh whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries. (I make this combination every year for her!)

Once the cake was assembled, I whipped up some cream cheese buttercream, tinted it with sky blue, and frosted the top and sides of the cake with it. (I usually do this in two steps - a quick crumb coat to lock in all of the cake crumbs, refrigerate for 30 minutes, and then a final smooth coat).

Then I let the cake chill in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I added a piped beaded border along the bottom of the cake, and then added my previously made fondant animals.

Then I pipe some plants in between the animals (using frosting that was tinted with forest green), and added my previously made fondant leaves next to each animal.

I also made a second cake, a 10-inch coffee chiffon cake for the adults! This one was decorated simply with rainbow sprinkles surrounding the number "5". (You can read here on how I did this!)

The party was held at the Discovery Museum in Sausalito, which has so many fun things for kids to do, as well as spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We had a fantastic time celebrating with you, Marni! Happy Birthday!