Cake 4 - Star Wars a.k.a. Some Lessons Learned

So I learned a lot of lessons with this one. I was told to make a Star Wars cake. I couldn't be chocolate or lemon and was supposed to have cream cheese icing. It also had to use these Star Wars toys.
I gave some suggestions, and Sharon (the mom of the birthday girl) chose red velvet cake. I started by baking two 15x11 red velvet cakes. I cut off a little of one of the sides and put it on the end to make it a long, narrow cake. I then iced it very thinly to keep the crumbs in. Lesson 1: I don't like red velvet cake. It turned everything red! It washed right off, but it was annoying. I, stupidly, was afraid it would dye everything red. It didn't. It also didn't transfer well. I don't know if it's just drier or what, but the top layer cracked to pieces when I put it on the lower level. I had to do some careful piecing to get it all flat. (It was that or make a whole new one at 9 p.m.)
 
Next I made a two-layer round cake and iced it just like the 15x11. It turned out much better.

Here I got distracted and forgot to take more pictures of the process. So you just get to listen to me describe it all. I separated the icing into different portions. I dyed some light blue, some dark blue, some gray, and some green. Half the 15x11 (which was not really those dimensions anymore) was iced in white, just thicker than before so it would actually cover the red cake. The other half was covered in the lighter green icing. The round cake was three different colors. I made half the side white and the other half light blue. The top was dark blue (it actually turned out kind of purple, but it looked okay once it set). During this icing process I learned Lesson 2: I don't like cream cheese frosting. It gets too soft too quickly. It's a pain to make it do what you want. It wasn't awful, just not as easy as buttercream. I also learned Lesson 3: Black food coloring gives everything a slightly purple tint. If you want black, you need to put cocoa or something in the icing too. I'm told that when it dries the light purple will turn gray. I think it still looked purple, but I also saw it before it dried so that might have skewed my view.

The round cake was placed on top of the sheet cake with the white sides together. I added details to the lower cake by using black piping gels to draw a doorway on the white so it looked like the inside of a ship where the Storm Trooper Commander Fil could fight Obi-Wan Kenobi. On the other side I put in some French Vanilla Piroulines. I leaf tipped some leaves on the Piroulines so they would look like trees. I then stuck Anakin Skywalker and Stap into the grass so it would look like he was flying through that world where the Ewoks live (with a few less trees, obviously). On the top of the round I placed a plain Hershey bar that had been iced gray to make a platform across the middle of the cake. Then I put white lines on the dark blue to make the scene where Luke fights Darth Vader. Sorry I don't have a picture of this. I really should have taken one.

To cover the seem in the middle of the cake where the colors changed, I made a sugar cookie in the shape of the Star Wars logo. I made it the size I wanted it. I forgot it would expand in the oven. Here's what the huge thing looked like.

I iced the letters to make them stand out a bit, then I propped it in front of the cake with a small piece of cake board to help keep it from cracking. Here's the finished cake. You can't really see any of the details behind the mammoth cookie. Sorry again.
So I learned a lot. I don't like red velvet. I don't like cream cheese frosting (at least not for decorating). I don't like black food coloring. I did enjoy making the cake, though, if for no other reason than I learned a lot. Now I know, right? Besides, Stevie liked it, and that's all that really matters.

Update: Here's a link to Sharon's blog. She has a couple better pictures of the cake.
http://werewildwithpottywords.blogspot.com/2010/10/birthday-baby.html