Cute VW Kombi Cake Tutorial

 

Cute Kombi

This cute Kombi is just 6.5″ long by 3.5″ wide and is a smaller and cuter version of my usual VW Kombi. It is made from dark chocolate mud cake filled and covered with dark chocolate ganache with a layer of sugar-paste on top. This little cake will serve 16 dessert portions.

Full size VW Kombi Van Cake

Materials

9″ round cake board

thin card with a glossy side

white sugar-paste

blue sugar-paste

black sugar-paste

Set up Board

Cut out your set up board from a sheet of thin card with a glossy side. Shape it into a van shape approx. 6″ x 3″. Your board should be a little larger than your cake so that you fill the gap with ganache and use the edge of your set up board to guide your scrapper giving you a smooth finish. Use a non slip mat under your set up board.

 

Bake a 6″ square Dark Chocolate Mud cake

Ingredients:

220g unsalted butter

180g dark chocolate

4.5g instant coffee

1 cup warm water

170g caster sugar

230g self raising flour

25g cocoa

2 small eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

 

Instructions:

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.
2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.
3. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.
4. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla and mix till combined.
5. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
6. Bake at 150C for 1-1 hour 15 mins. Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

 

Make Ganache

For detailed instructions on making and using ganache click here

1 kg dark chocolate
400ml pure cream

Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.
Your ganache at this point will be thin and you will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would usually set in the fridge in under an hour. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out).

 

Cut your cake in half and stick one half to your set up board with some ganache. Level the top.

 

Spread with a layer of ganache.

 

Add the remaining piece of cake on top and shape the roof. Use some of the cut offs to fill in the rounded front of the van and use a sharp knife to create a believable van shape then cover with a thin coat of ganache (crumb coat).

 

Put the cake in the fridge for around 30 mins to firm up then add more ganache and create the final smooth shape.

 

Pop the cake back in the fridge or leave overnight on the bench to harden. Cover with white sugar-paste.

 

Cut out a surf board template and use it to cut out a white sugar-paste surf board.

 

Cover the cake board with black sugar-paste.

 

Cut out a template for the blue lower section. I cut out each side separately and then joined them neatly at the back. Cut out the wheel arches using a cutter then use the same cutter to cut out the wheels.

 

Use black sugar-paste for the windows and white for the roof rack.

 

To make the VW badge cut out a large circle of blue sugar-paste then cut out the middle and replace with a white sugar=paste circle of the same size. Use a scalpel to cut out the VW detail freehand from  a thin piece of blue sugar-paste. Decorate the suf board with cut outs or paint on a design.

 

Add lights, bumpers and number plates.

 

Attach the wheels with a blob of Royal icing.

 

Either place the surf board on top or leaning against one side.

 

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Lightning McQueen Cake tutorial

 

What fun I had making this little beauty! He is only 10″ long but ever inch is packed with dynamite!

The cake inside is based on a 7″ square Chocolate cake (not a mud cake) with dark chocolate ganache covered in sugar paste.

MATERIALS

A sheet of card with a shiny or wax side for the set up board

A 12″ square cake board

950g red sugar paste

400g black sugar paste

300g yellow sugar paste

a small amount of white sugar paste

a tiny amount of blue sugar paste

Tylose powder

TO MAKE THE 7″ SQUARE CHOCOLATE CAKE

165g soft butter

300g caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

65g SR flour

200g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

70g cocoa powder

250ml buttermilk

For the ganache

750g of dark chocolate

300ml pure cream

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease tin and line the base. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with electric beaters until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Transfer to larger bowl and fold in combined flours, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa alternatively with the buttermilk.

2. Spoon into tin and smooth the surface. Bake for between 1hr and 1hr 10 mins. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Leave the cake in the tin to cool for at least 5 mins before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

TO MAKE THE GANACHE

Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.
Your ganache at this point will be thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would usually set in the fridge in about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out).

For full information on making ganache and covering your cake with ganache just check out this page
https://cutesweetthings.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/how-to-make-ganache-and-cover-your-cake-with-it/

SET UP BOARD

Use the plan below to help design the shape of your template. Enlarge the plan by 140% in a copier so that the car measures 10″ in length.  Widen the car by adding a strip of paper down the middle of your template so that the car measures 5.5″ in width. This shape makes the best use of your cake pieces and it also looks cute for a young persons birthday ( Flynn was turning 3).

Lightning McQueen plans

Use this template to cut out your set up board from a piece of card with the wax/shiny side up.

CARVING THE CAKE

Cut the cake into 3 pieces

7″ x 5″

4.5″ x 2″

2.5″ x 2″

Use a little ganache or Royal Icing to stick the pieces of cake to the set up board. Use ganache to join pieces together.

 

Enlarge one of the ‘side on’ pictures of Lightning McQueen below till the car measures 10″ long. Cut it our and hold against your cake as you carve to get the correct outline / shape.

Toy car details

 

As you start to carve the shape of the car, don’t throw out any lumps of cake but instead use them to fill in some empty spaces.

 

Once you are happy with the shape of your car cover it in a thin layer of ganache (a crumb coat) and place in fridge.

 

Crumb coat

 

Remove from fridge when hard and with this nice firm base you will be able to add more ganache and smooth it to the required shape.

Use a round cutter to cut out the wheel arches.

Roll out your red sugar paste and cover the car in one go. I used a ball tool to press the sugar paste into the wheel arches.

 

While the sugar paste is still soft use a skewer or similar to fashion a smiling mouth shape.

 

Cut out a spoiler template in paper to fit the car and use it to cut out your spoiler from a nice thick piece of red sugar paste (add some CMC or Tylose powder to the sugar paste to help firm it up). This will take some time to harden, maybe even overnight.

 

 

 

Cut out hubcaps and thick wheels using the ‘side on’ picture of Lightening McQueen as a guide the the size. Add Tylose powder to the wheels to help them harden.

Leave the spoiler and wheels to dry out, meanwhile continue with the rest of the car details.

Use the ‘side on’ picture of Lightning McQueen as a guide to make the lightening bolt.

Coloured modelling paste i.e. sugar paste + Tylose powder

Make the two intermediate shades by mixing together some red and yellow.

Making the number 5

Using this Rust-eze image as your inspiration, design a badge with the name of your choice.

Use yellow Royal Icing to pipe Flynn on to the badge or cut out some thinly rolled sugar paste.

Cut out the rear window and attach.

Cover your 12″ cake board with black sugar paste and place Lightning McQueen diagonally on top.

 

Lightning McQueen Cake

Lightning McQueen Cake

 

Pirate Ship Cake Tutorial

I made this cake for Slade’s 1st birthday and his Mum didn’t want anything too scary so no skull and cross bones on this cake. It was fun to make the cake and like many of my cakes I didn’t have any idea how it would turn out and just made decisions as to style and colour as I went along.

Some materials you will need

12″ of 7mm diam wooden dowelling for the mast 12″ square cake board 375g pale blue sugar paste to cover cake board 900g brown sugar paste to cover ship

Dark Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe

I used my recipe for a 9″ square cake but I actually used a 8.5″ pan so that the cake was taller than usual. 400g butter 325g dark chocolate 1.5 tblsp coffee granules 2 cups warm water 2.5 cups of Self raising flour 1.5 cups caster sugar 0.5 cups cocoa powder 3 large eggs 1.5 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1.5-2 hours . Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Make the Dark Chocolate Ganache

although I am asking you to make a lot of ganache, you will need a lot to give the ship its bulging shape and any extra can be frozen till your next cake project.

1.9 kg dark chocolate, finely chopped 600ml pure cream

Method: Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.

Your ganache at this point will be thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would  usually set in the fridge in about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out) till it is easy to work with.

For more information on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it, please click here.

Set up Board

first of all measure out a rectangle 11 x 22 cm then round the corners off to make the ship template which will also be used as the set up board and the edge can be followed when ganaching..

Set up board

Once you are happy with the shape cut it out.

Building the ship

Cut the cake in half.

Cut cake in half

Use the template / set up board to cut out the hull shape on both halves of the cake.

Use the template to cut out the hull

Cut dome off top and turn upside down and attach to set up board with some ganache

Now cut in half horizontally and fill with ganache.

Now take the other half of the cake it horizontally into 2 pieces

Take one piece and cut into 3 sections.

Cut into 3 pieces

Use ganache to attach 2 of these pieces to your ship.

Now take the final piece and cut into 3 pieces.

Use ganache to attach 2 of these pieces to your ship.

Use up all the leftover pieces of cake to create the Pirate Ship shape that pleases you the best.

Cover with a crumb coat of ganache (a thin layer of ganache to seal in all the crumbs).

Place in the fridge till it firms up.

Add ganache to create final shape, making a nice rounded shape.

Leave on bench to harden (overnight if possible)

Sugar paste

Paint a thin layer of water onto your cake board and cover with pale blue sugar paste.

Measure the length and sides of your ship so you know the size of the oval piece of brown sugar paste you will need to cover your ship.

Paint a thin layer of water over the entire ship and cover with the one large piece of sugar paste.

Use smoothers to smooth your sugar paste.

Decoration

Make marks on side of ship to resemble old wooden planks.

Create an old wooden plank effect

I created some stripes in Photoshop and a birthday message for Slade on lightweight card and cut out a small square with the birthday message as the top sail and a larger square as the bottom square. Use a ‘hole punch’ to make holes for the mast.

Create stripes and a birthday message in Photoshop

Roll out some of the left over brown sugar paste into a long thin sausage shape and cut 22 pillars of equal length. use fingers to make each one as cylindrical as possible and stick to ship with a little water, edible glue or egg white.

Add some tiny pillars around the decks

Cut out some port holes, windows, doors and handrails. Use a piping bag to pipe some pale blue Royal Icing around the windows etc. to add interest. Leave overnight to firm up.

Windows, port holes and handrails.

Stick all the remaining bits and bobs to the ship and set sail for the open seas.

The Pirate Ship completed.

Jawa Cake Tutorial

Jawa

This cake does not require any sugar paste which is excellent news for children who dislike sugar paste or the decorator who dislikes using sugar paste. The Chocolate ganache finish is a little rustic but suits our cheeky little Jawa well. There are no real instructions for sculpting this cake as I mostly used my fingers and a small pallette knife. The chocolate ganache behaves a bit like clay and when it gets a bit soft you just pop it in the fridge to firm up again. Ingredients for Chocolate Mud Cake  I used 3 round cake pans 5″, 5.5″ and a 6″. The eyes are two yellow sweets (lollies) with a sugar coating.

• 435g butter
• 350g dark chocolate
• 2 tblsp instant coffee powder
• 2.5 cups warm water
• 330g caster sugar
• 360g SR flour
• 60g cocoa powder
• 4 eggs
• 2tsp vanilla

method:

1. Grease and line base and sides of the bowls with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.
2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of large mixer.
3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.
4. Pour mixture into prepared bowls.
5. Bake at 150C for 1 hours. Test with skewer. Cool cakes in their pans.

Ingredients for the Ganache to fill and cover Jawa’s head and body (for more information on making and using ganache click here)

• 1 x 600ml pure cream
• 1,900g dark chocolate

method:

1. Place pieces of chocolate in food processor and process till chocolate looks like coffee granules.
2. Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to boiling point. Pour the cream over the chocolate and mix with a hand whisk until the ganache is smooth. (Do not use an electric whisk, as you will create too many air bubbles in the ganache.)
3. Allow to cool completely and then leave to set overnight.

   

   Ready for the oven

Proccess the chocolate to the size of coffee granules

Ganache nice and smooth

Baked, cooled and ready for the ganache

 To assemble the cake

(Sorry that I have no pictures for this part, I must have been so caught up in my work that I forgot to use my camera!) I cut all 3 cakes through the middle and filled them with ganache. I started with the smallest cake and shaped it roughly into a head shape, covered it in ganache roughly and put it in the fridge to harden a bit. Then I stacked the two largest cakes one on top of the other with the largest at the bottom. I inserted a wooden dowel down through the middle of the cake with a portion left sticking up through with a point on the end so that I could slide the head on. I used ganache to help stick the head to the body. I used the pieces of cut off cake ( I mixed the cake with some ganache to make it easy to mould) to help mould the Jawa shape e.g. his knee and foot but not his arms at this stage. Place in the fridge to firm up again. Cover all exposed areas of cake with a thin layer of ganache (crumb coat) Place in fridge to firm up.

I used this image as inspiration for my cake.

To build up the arms I used a few cocktail sticks and layered the ganache slowly adding to the size and shape while still popping the cake in the fridge to firm up each stage before continuing. I had a few saggy moments but that only made me more careful and determined to make it work. I made the gun in the same way and added it at the very end with the help of 2 toothpicks. I enjoyed mouling the shape with my hands and although it looks like s..t to begin with it soon starts to take shape and creating the hood and sleeves is just magic!

Making the top and bottom parts of the gun

Jawa gun

I added some raw caster sugar at the base to look like sand.

From all angles

Some more of my Star Wars Cake Tutorials

Click on the images below to go straight to the corresponding tutorial.

Lego Millennium Falcon Cake

Death Star Cake

Star Wars r2d2 Cake

Jawa Star Wars Chocolate Cake

How to make a Dr Who Tardis Cake

A Tardis cake for Lochie on his 13th birthday. He is a big Dr Who fan!

The Tardis cake was on a black marble turntable and we hid it in the media room (no windows). Lochie was brought into the darkened room and someone swirled the cake around at speed while another person moved their hand rapidly up and down in front of a torch, creating a strobe effect while a third person (Alasdair) played the Dr Who TV theme tune on the laptop. All of this went down really well!

This cake was another of my dark chocolate mud cakes with dark chocolate ganache filling as all children seem to love it and adults too. The cake is quite straightforward and the instructions are easy to follow. It did, however, take longer to make than I anticipated so leave some extra time for the finishing touches.

Materials

8″ square cake tin

2 x 4.5″ set up boards

2 x 4″ set up boards. These boards will be used to separate the top and bottom parts of the cake.

1.5 kg blue / grey sugar paste

Small amounts of black and white sugar paste for windows, signs etc.

Dark blue petal dust

I used an 8″ square pan for the cake but I used the recipe for a 9″ square cake so that my cake would be taller than normal.

Tardis in action!

9” square dark chocolate mud cake recipe

400g unsalted butter

325g dark chocolate

1.5 tablespoon instant coffee

2.2 cups warm water

2.5 cups self raising flour

1.5 cup caster sugar

0.4 cup cocoa

3.25 eggs

1.5 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

1.2 kg (2 lb 10 oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped

600 ml (21 fl oz) pure cream

Instructions

1. Put chocolate pieces in a large bowl

2. Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and mix with a whisk until the ganache is smooth. Do not use an electric whisk as you will create too many air bubbles in the ganache.

3. Allow to cool completely and then leave to set overnight.

For detailed instructions on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it click here

Creating the Tardis shape

1. Cut your cake into 4 small cakes, each 4″ x 4″.

2. Now cut each of these horizontally, giving you 8 pieces.

3. Make two cakes. The bottom cake will require 4 pieces filled with ganache sitting on the 4.5″ set up board. Also cover the top and sides with a thin crumb coat of ganache.

4. The top half is made up of 3 pieces sitting on the smaller 4″ set up board. Fill with ganache and again cover with a thin crumb coat of ganache.

5. Place the remaining 4″ board upside down on top of your bottom cake then place the top cake on top of this. Where the two cakes meet can eventually be separated when you cone to cut the cake. This will make it easy to cut elegant slices of cake.

6. Wait until your ganached cake firms up. You may need to put it in the fridge for half an hour.

6. You should now have one remaining 4.5″ board. Place it on top of the cake and use it as a guide to help you ganache the sides of the cake. If you use a set square you can run it along the sides of the cake using the 4.5″ boards at the top and bottom as a guide. Easy!

Ganached

The final cake slice will be used as the roof so cut the sides off to make it a little smaller and cover it with ganache. You can cover it with blue/grey sugar paste as soon as the ganache forms up.

Roof ganached

To cover in sugar paste, use a brush to apply a thin layer of water onto the ganache. Make a lid and attach. Measure the the height of the Tardis and the perimeter. Cut out the sugar paste a little larger and wrap around. Trim off the excess. The rough join is unimportant as corner pieces will eventually cover it.

Covered in sugar paste

Attach the roof with a thin layer of water.

Add 4 thin pieces of sugar paste to neaten up the roof.

Much better!

Cutting out the corners using the width of the ruler as the width of the sugar paste.

Cutting slimmer strips to attach to the centre of each side.

Paint on a little water to help each piece stick.

Adding more detail

Cutting out the windows. I used the width of my ruler as a guide but had to cut a little more off each to make a snug fit.

The REAL Tardis door

Roll out thin lines of sugar paste to make the small windows

Use a dry paint brush to apply the dark blue petal dust to your cake. Use it to darken the shadows and to make the overall look distressed.

Tardis complete

Tardis, view from above

I used photoshop to place the Tardis cake on an image that I created a while back called ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. Details below

This photomanipulation is made up of several images. I took a picture of Callum on the boardwalk leading to the creek at Pottsville. I inverted the trees either side and added the steps from a picture taken at Norries Head, Cabarita. The fence is from a friend’s garden in Springbrook National Park. All the shadows on the boardwalk are just painted on in Photoshop and the birds are several shots of the one bird, a White-bellied Sea-Eagle, taken at Murwillumbah, flying overhead on the banks of the Tweed River near Dallis Park.

Tardis

Angry Birds Cake

Balin and his Angry Birds birthday cake (picture taken by my good friend Jillian Merlot, Balin’s gran) I had to do a little post processing in Photoshop of course!

Make the 8″ square Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

500g unsalted butter

400g dark chocolate

10g (2 tablespoon) instant coffee

2-2/3 cups warm water

380g (2 cup) caster sugar

520g (3 cups) self raising flour

60g (1/2 cup) cocoa

4 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 hour 45 mins. Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Make the Dark Chocolate Ganache

1.2 kg (2lb 10oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped

500ml (17.5 fl oz) pure cream

Method: Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.

Your ganache at this point will be thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would  usually set in the fridge in about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out).

For more information on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it, please click here.

Inspiration 2

inspiration 1

actual game

I used the three images above as my inspiration. I tried to match the sizes, shapes and colours as I put together the birds, pigs and timbers. I also went online and played the game just to better understand the whole ‘Angry Birds’ thing.

Catapult

I made all the pieces separately as they were being transported to the birthday party and with the cake being tall and slim (reflecting the 2D nature of the Angry Birds game) I was afraid that the cake would be top heavy and topple over in the car. I used cocktail sticks and wooden skewers to keep everything straight and the spikes came in handy for anchoring the timbers to the cake later on.

Timbers 1

Timbers 2

I made an 8″square dark chocolate mud cake and cut it in half and filled it with dark chocolate ganache. I then cut the cake up to resemble the online game silhouette finally covered the top and sides with the remaining ganache.

Angry Birds cake under construction

Angry Birds cake

Now that you have mastered the Angry Bird cake you have to have a go at the Star Wars Angry Bird Cake that I made in September 2014!

Star Wars Angry Bird cake

How to make a Rainbow Layer Cake using white chocolate mud recipe

Rainbow Layer Cake

This cake is similar to my Rainbow Cake below and you can find full instructions for it here.

Rainbow Cake

Three things make this cake special

1. The Rainbow Layers. They can be a big surprise if the recipient and/or guests have no idea what is inside.

2. The cake is based on a White Chocolate Mud Cake. Lots of people are scarred to use colours with Chocolate mud cakes if they do not have the special chocolate colours. I did a lot of research before I used my ordinary food colours and the reason they work is because we are not colouring 100% pure chocolate. The other ingredients magically make it alright to use Wilton or AmeriColor (these are the only two makes that I have tried so far).

3. You can make this cake even if you do not have 6 x 10″ round cake pans. I have 2 x 10 inch pans and I bake the layers in 3 batches. You could make do with just one pan, it will just take a little longer.

Colours of the rainbow Red, Orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Coloured cake batter

Use 2 x 10 inch pans

White Chocolate Mud Cake 

(Planet Cake recipe)

Need a minimum of one 10″ pan ( 6 x 10″ pans would make the job really easy though!)

I used 2 x 10″ pans as that is all I have.

390g butter
390g white chocolate
350ml water
195g SR flour
390g plain flour
520g caster sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla essence

White Chocolate Mud Cake Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C.
2. Grease and line bases of both cake pans with one thickness of baking paper.
3. Combine chopped butter and water in a saucepan.
4. Stir over low heat until butter is melted. Turn off heat, then add the chocolate and stir until it has melted and is well combined.
5. Sift flours into a bowl. Add sugar, a pinch of salt and make a well in the centre.
6. Pour chocolate mixture, egg and vanilla into the well then stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.
7. Divide the batter equally amongst the 6 bowls.  Weigh your mixing bowl before you begin adding ingredients and then subtract the weight of the bowl from the final measurement after the batter is completed. Divide that number by six and add that weight of batter to each bowl, and then whisk a fair amount of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Keep in mind that the color of the unbaked batter will be the color of the baked batter. Pour into the pans and bake for 15 minutes each or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cake.
8. Once cake pans have been washed, repeat the process twice more till all 6 layers have been baked.

 

Rainbow layers ready for buttercream

Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream

As you can see from the recipe, this cake requires a huge amount of buttercream to fill the layers and cover the outside. I would recommend that you make the buttercream in two separate batches ( 1. To fill and crumb coat. 2. To frost) because you would need a HUGE bowl to make this much buttercream at one time!

Please click here for a step-by-step guide to making Swiss Meringue Buttercream and troubleshooting tips!

To fill and crumb coat:

9 egg whites
1 ¾ cup (350 g) sugar
4 sticks (452 g) butter, room temp
2 tsp lemon extract

To frost:

5 egg whites
1 cup (200 g) sugar
2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp
1 tsp lemon extract

Cook the egg whites and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved (test by rubbing some between your fingers. If it’s completely smooth, it’s done). Pour into another bowl (a stand mixer is preferable) and whip on high speed until room temp. Then, on a medium-slow speed, add the butter, waiting until each piece is completely incorporated before adding the next. After all the butter has been added, turn the mixer back to high speed and whip until it has come together, about five minutes. Add the extract, beat briefly and then use.

If the buttercream seems soupy after all of the butter is added and does not come together after whipping, refrigerate for 5 to 7 minutes and continue whipping until it becomes fluffy and workable.

Filled with buttercrem

Assembly

Stack the layers in your preferred order and fill and frost as you would any other cake.

Once frosted, the cake can be left on the counter without any problems, but feel free to refrigerate it. Just be sure that the cake is at room temperature when serving or the frosting will be hard.

A slice of Rainbow Cake

Lego Millennium Falcon Cake

Nothing evokes nostalgia quite like Lego and Star Wars! Embrace that feeling by following the steps in this tutorial to create a dark chocolate Lego-style Millennium Falcon!

This cake is built around an 8″ round dark chocolate mud cake but you will also need a 6″ round dark chocolate mud cake to make the Cockpit and Forward Mandibles not to mention the Concussion – Missile Tubes!!!!!! I have given instructions on how to make a 10″ round cake and this will produce enough batter to fill the 6″ and 8″ pans.

Materials

white card

Mud cake

375g unsalted butter

300g dark chocolate

1.5 tablespoon instant coffee

2 cups warm water

1.5 cup caster sugar

2.25 cups self raising flour

3/8 cup cocoa

3 eggs

1.5 teaspoon vanilla

Ganache

1200g dark chocolate

600ml pure cream

2kg grey sugar-paste

a small amount of black sugar-paste

1.  Making the set up board

Print out this picture of the Millennium Falcon onto an A4 sheet of paper so that the image fills the page and this will give you the actual size of your finished ship (i.e. 8″ diameter of the large round part of the ship) . You will need two prints as you will be cutting one of them up.

Cut out the shape of the ship in white card or add the extra bits to an 8″ round board as I have done in the picture. This set up board (as it is called) will help you to cut out your pieces of cake and also help when applying the ganache to the sides of your cake. More of that later.

2. Covering the cake board

Use the underside of a Lego base board to give you the brick impression.

Press down firmly and evenly to get the best results

Although some bits of my cake board are a little flat, the ship will cover them.

3. Making the Lego shapes

Use the plan view of the Millennium Falcon to plan and cut out the shapes that you need.

I decided on making mostly triangular shapes and as I cut each one out I placed it on top of the plan view to see how they would all fit together. Once each shape had been cut out, press the Lego board on top to make it look like Lego bricks then neaten up the edges if they have spread a little due to the pressure.

To make the satellite dish, cut out a circle of grey sugar-paste and leave it to harden on the back of a tablespoon to give it a beautiful spherical look. Attach a thick triangle of sugar-paste to its base with edible glue or egg white.

4. Bake the cake

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pans with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pans. Use a skewer to check that both pans have the same depth of batter. This will ensure that both cakes end up the same height.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

5.  Making the ganache

Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.

Your ganache at this point will be thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would  usually set in the fridge in about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out). Click here to find out all you need to know about making and applying ganache to your cake.

6.  Putting the cake together

Use the smaller cake to cut out the cockpit and Mandibles. Lay the templates on top of the cake and cut around them with a sharp knife. Now cut all your pieces in half ready for the ganache filling.

Use a non-slip mat under your set-up board then stick your pieces to the board with some ganache.

Use ganache to stick all the pieces to each other.

Now add a nice thick layer of ganache across the top as the filling for your cake.

Place the top half of the cake on top of the ganache remembering to stick the pieces together with ganache.

Cover the top and sides of the cake with remaining ganache.

7. Icing the cake

Roll out a large oval of grey sugar-paste making sure it is large enough to cover the cake plus a few centimetres more.

 Getting the sugar-paste neatly in and around the Millennium Falcon shape is probably the most difficult part of making this cake. It might be simpler to make the cockpit and mandibles serarately and attach them to the body of the cake after you apply the sugar-paste. Anyway, it doesn’t have to be mega neat as most of the ship will be covered in Lego shapes!

8. Candles

Insert sparkles or candles at the back to resemble thrusters and your done!

More Star Wars Cake Tutorials

Click on the images below to go straight to the corresponding tutorial.

Jawa Cake

Death Star Cake

Star Wars r2d2 Cake

Star Wars Death Star Cake

This Death Star Cake was such fun to make that you just won’t know when to stop! It is made of Dark Chocolate Mud Cake and filled and covered in Dark Chocolate Ganache then grey Sugar-paste. Use two 8.5″ or 9″ metal kitchen bowls to bake the cakes.

 

Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

 

Ingredients

to fill two 8.5″ metal bowls

500g unsalted butter

500g dark chocolate

2 tablespoon instant coffee

2-2/3 cups warm water

3 cups self raising flour

2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

4 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

 Instructions:

1. Grease and line base and sides of bowls with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared bowls.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Test with skewer. Cool cake in bowls.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

 

Ingredients

1.2 kg dark chocolate

500ml pure cream

Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.

Your ganache at this point will be thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would  usually set in the fridge in about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out).

If you prefer a really soft filling for your cakes then just whip ½ cup cream and add 2 tbsp of the Ganache and whip a little more. This makes a delicious and easy chocolate mousse.

For more information on ganaching your cake click here.

Sugarpaste

750g in grey to cover Death Star

350g in black to cover board

360g in dark grey for stick on blocks

Royal Icing 

to decorate the blocks

250-300g pure icing sugar, sifted
2-4 drops acetic acid (white vinegar)
1 egg white

Beat icing sugar, acetic acid and egg white with electric beater on medium-high speed for 4 minutes for ‘soft peak’. Add extra sugar if the icing is too soft.
Achieving the right consistency for Royal Icing can be difficult but practise makes perfect, so if icing is too thick or too thin just empty your piping bag and add more water/vinegar or icing sugar. You will soon work it out. Add black edible colour until the correct shade of grey is achieved. Fill a pipping bag fitted with a number 1 tip.

Step 1. Line tins with greaseproof paper and add a collar of around 20 cms.

Step 2. Bake the cakes and place on 9″ round thin cake boards. Fill and cover in ganache using the instructions above. Make sure that the bottom half of the cake has a flat bottom to sit on.

Step 3. Cover with sugar-paste. If you would like to find out how to colour sugarpaste and use it to cover your cake click here

Step 4. Insert 4 thin plastic dowels as shown and one thick one in the middle which will fit over the small wooden dowel which has been inserted into the base board by first drilling a hole in the middle of the board. These plastic dowels can easily be cut with scissors.

Do not assemble the cakes on the base board until all decoration is fully complete.

The dowel in the centre locates into the hollow dowel in the cake base and helps anchor the cake to the board especially if travelling by car.

Step 5. Roll out the dark grey sugar-paste as thin as you can and cut out all the shapes that you think you will need. Glue them onto the cakes with edible glue (or a little water) and pipe with the Royal Icing making up your designs as you go. Use the pictures of the finished Death Star as a guide only.

Step 6. Roll out the black sugar-paste making a little hole in the centre. Slip the hole over the dowel in the centre and cover the cake board. Lift up the sugar-paste and paint on a little water underneath to help the sugar-paste stick to the board.
Add a little icing or edible glue around the wooden dowel. Slip the bottom half of the Death Star onto the dowel. To attach the top half of the Death Star apply PVA glue to the cake boards or use a knife to spread on some icing. Make sure the concave circle is facing forward and is centralised.

I hope you have as much fun making this cake as I had!

May the Force be with You!

More Star Wars Cake Tutorials

Click on the images below to go straight to the corresponding tutorial.

Jawa Cake

Lego Millennium Falcon Cake

Star Wars r2d2 Cake

Other Star Wars Cakes, without tutorials

Stormtrooper Cake, hand painted

 

Darth Vader

Darth Vader

Bumblebee Transformer Cake

Dark Chocolate Mud Cake (from Planet Cake Cookbook)

Ingredients for 7″ cake

135 g  butter

135 g  dark choc

15 g  coffee

100 ml  water

75 g  SR

75 g  plain

30 g  cocoa

1/4 tsp  bicarb

300 g  caster

3  eggs

5  tsp oil

60 ml  buttermilk

Dark Chocolate Ganache 

735 g dark chocolate, finely chopped

365 ml pure cream

Fondant

BLACK: 800g sugar-paste to cover entire cake

YELLOW: 300g Mask and number plate

To find out how to make the mud-cake and ganache filling please visit my Ben Ten Cake blogTo Decorate your Transformer Cake

Download the shape below from here and resize to fit your cake if necessary and print it out.

Cut out all the separate pieces of the mask and use them as templates to cut out the pieces of yellow sugar-paste.

Attach each piece to the top of the cake making sure that the pieces are in the right place.

To make the plaque and the number 4, simply cut out a square of yellow and attach it with some Royal Icing, edible glue or water to the front of the cake.
Cut out a number 4 in yellow and another in black with a cutter and attach, first the yellow and then the black.

If you would like to find out how to make this 5.5″  Red Transformer Cake Click Here.