For my son’s 6th birthday I was tasked with making a 3-D Yoda cake as he only likes the “good side of the Force”. As Yoda says: “Try Not, Do or Do Not – There is no Try” We understand that quote a lot better after this challenge!
Over the course of a couple of weeks I made six 9in. round cakes, and a ball cake sculpted for his head and froze them, bought dowels and had a solid wood platform, made homemade fondant for the first time in two colors and seemed ready to go. I wanted to knock it all out 2 days before the party. Well, can you say Epic Fail! It’s funny now but at the time was a bit upsetting!
After working most of the day on him, my husband and I looked him over at about 11 p.m. and were deciding on where to place his fondant ears, when suddenly the Force moved Yoda AH! And he came at us! Yes, he starting falling forward! We propped him up and thought he’d be okay at least thru the night until we could figure out a permanent fix, but alas in the morning my son ran downstairs and yelled “Where is Yoda? I don’t see any cake?” Ahhhh… Yes, he had fallen off the kitchen island and face-planted on the floor!!! UGH! An 8 cake tall Yoda – Gone ugh!!!
Needless to say, it was a good thing I’d allotted for two days before the planning because I immediately turned on the oven at 7 a.m. and started baking again! My husband went shopping for all the extra ingredients and went to work late – so thankful! We then read that we probably needed some round cake plates in between each layer in addition to the dowels for extra stabilization! Luckily, I had some on hand and I decided to only make his body 4 cakes high. Assembly the 2nd go around was much more successful and the cake was so much sturdier!
So 3D Yoda Cake #2 was assembled and frosted with homemade buttercream w/real butter and this time we decided to make his head out of two 6 in. rounds that we carved into an oval. I also didn’t cut off the top of the cake after baking thus leaving the bulge to be part of the indentations in his head. This worked great. I added some fondant in other parts of his face to build it up and then covered the head completely and sculpted some extra wrinkles and eyes later.
The fondant for his cloak gave me a difficult time. I had to make extra fondant at about 10 p.m. as I hated the way his initial cloak had gone on so I peeled some of it off. I just made a half a batch and was able to drape it over the area that had looked so terrible because it had ripped as I’d tried to lay it on. Brand new to fondant so this was all a learning experience for sure. Finally to bed at 2 a.m. after lots of kitchen clean-up! So much powdered sugar from the fondant! But satisfied with the cake results.
Hours before the party the next day, I took some liquid food coloring and painted him to “dirty” him up a bit since he lives in a swamp and added some lettering at the bottom to finish the whole thing off. My son and all the party goers were in Awe, which made me very happy! And then when they heard our about our drama, well they just couldn’t believe it!
Guess the Force was truly with me on this 3D Yoda cake!
