My boys love Star Wars. Their birthdays are 1 day apart, and they turned 6 and 9 this year. When they asked for a Yoda birthday cake, I wasn’t sure I could deliver.
The Cake:
I started with 2 round 8-inch cakes and a square 9-inch cake. The round cakes were stacked for Yoda’s head, and the square was cut into his ears. I froze the cakes so that I could cut them easily without too many crumbs. I carved the rough shape of Yoda’s face out of the top of the cake- holes for where the eyes would be, taller where the nose would sit, etc. I covered everything with a layer of frosting. I then used green colored fondant to sculpt the facial features.
Fondant:
I covered the whole cake with green tinted fondant.
Wrinkles:
I used fondant tools to make wrinkles in Yoda’s face. I looked at pictures of Yoda on the internet during the whole process.
Eyes:
I added eyeballs (balls of white fondant) and eye lids.
Finishing touches:
When I added water to the fondant because it was too hard to make his eye lids, it ended up being darker. So, I decided to learn a new technique. I read up online about how to paint cakes. I experimented a little bit and ended up using gel coloring mixed with clear vanilla extract. I painted the different shading and details on Yoda’s face, as well as gave his eyes their irises. The vanilla extract “paint” gave the cake a nice shine, too. I will be using this technique in the future.
I added cotton “hair” to his ears, piped the words with blue frosting, and Yoda was complete. My boys were amazed, and for one day, I was actually a cool mom!
