My stepson has gone crazy for Star Wars this year and wanted a Darth Vader themed seventh birthday party. I looked through tons of cake ideas online and could not find a design that I wanted to work with. I have had terrible experience with black icing, not in the decoration but in what color it leaves in peoples mouths!! I love working with fondant, but saw the effort putting together an elaborate 3D Darth Vader a little wasted on the mini-jedi crowd!
So it was on to pictures of Darth. Most of them were very intricate, really needing more of an airbrush to get the shading right to look 3D. Again, a little too much. I found a coloring page of Darth and immediately saw the potential. I used a basic 9/13 double layer cake. Iced in buttercream to achieve the flat effect but also to make it easier to draw the picture in the cake with a pointed skewer, the buttercream can be smoothed out so nicely when you make a mistake!
I then used brown and white cookie icing for the mask. The cookie icing smooths out itself and leaves a very polished look. You have about five minutes to work with it until it sets up. That was it. Just looked at the coloring page (looked up Star Wars coloring pages Darth Vader) and went at it! The light sabers are colored twizzlers with chocolate cookie icing for the handles.
Related cakes:
Coolest Darth Vader Birthday Cake 
Cool Homemade Darth Vader Cake for Star Wars Theme Party 
Cool Homemade Darth Vader Cake 
Coolest Star Wars vs. Clone Wars Birthday Cake 
Cool Homemade Darth Vader Cake Design 
Fireman Sam vs. Darth Vader – A Mixed Up Cake for an Indecisive 4-Year-Old! 
Coolest Darth Vader Helmet Cake 
Coolest Darth Vader Mask Cake
Thanks for sharing this cake…. it turned out great! I agree, the 3-D darth heads are cool, but with much potential for disaster as well. I like this design and the coloring sheet idea. I have to ask… what is cookie icing? I am not familiar. Different than a normal buttercream icing?
Thanks in advance! And nice work on the cake!
Cookie icing comes in a pouch that looks like a pastry bag. It sets or spreads out then sets. It’s great to fill in the black sections. You can pipe lines then fill in the voids. It’s s super easy way to make pictures. In the frosting isle.