Star Wars Fans Rejoice: Death Star Cake

It's official: birthday cakes on this blog have gone 3D. I'm starting to go into unexplored waters with this inaugural cake, the suitably epic Death Star Cake.

A friend's new bride threw a party in honor of his birthday, and in the early stages of planning for the party, I proposed a collaboration on the making of the cake. She proposed a Star Wars-themed cake since he loves Star Wars (like any respectable nerdy young man of our generation), and after a couple of weeks of research, we put our plan into action.


The day before the party, we got together to bake two cake recipes: a yummy yellow cake in regular 9 inch round cake pans, and a chocolate whiskey cake in Wilton's Sports Ball Pan Set.

The day of, we stacked and frosted the cakes with Creamy Vanilla Frosting (note: I made this frosting the night before using it and would discourage everyone from doing the same. It tends to curdle up when you defrost it, even if you whip it with a mixer again. It keeps the texture much better if you frost the cake before chilling it overnight. Otherwise it keeps color and texture better when you make it fresh.)

To support the Death Star appropriately, we measured and cut several plastic straw "dowels" and stuck them on one side of the cake to allow room to write on the bottom cake. We then cut a round of cardboard as the platform for the Death Star to sit on. The bottom of the Death Star was appropriately trimmed to be flat so it would sit steady and not roll away.



A layer of frosting and some random-width panels of grey fondant completed the iconic orbit. On the bottom cake, some black food coloring provided a perfect backdrop for the glowing-yellow birthday message.

We presented the cake with "The Imperial March" blaring in the background, drowned out at first by the chorus of "Happy Birthday to You." The birthday boy declared "That's ridiculous but awesome!" before spending five minutes continually taking pictures of it with his fancy camera.


Eventually, we ate the thing. The birthday boy sorely did not want to cut the Death Star, but most of the people in the room clamored for a piece of Death Star rather than the yellow cake, so after awhile he gave in and cut up the Death Star too.

Long live Star Wars!!