How To Make A Star Wars Cake For Your Little Jedis

Films don't come more epic than Star Wars, and food doesn't get much more epic than cake!

Combine the two and you're onto a winner, whether you're baking a Star Wars birthday cake or catering for movie night. A Star Wars cake might sound complicated, but don't stress; Kidadl is here with ideas for designs, plus recipe guides you can follow at lightspeed.

We've also got some great Star Wars craft ideas, plus a complete guide to throwing a Star Wars party.

Happy baking, and may the force (or should that be forks?) be with you.

You can buy all sorts to go on top of your cake (and we'll get to that later). But the essentials are:

175g self-raising flour

175g caster sugar

175g room-temperature, unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract or 50g cocoa powder

3 large eggs

The weight of the flour, sugar and butter is the same. Using 175 grams of each will serve eight to 10 people. You can scale up or down depending on how big you want your cake to be.

Large mixing bowl

Electric whisk (or a metal fork if you don't mind the manual work!)

Spatula

Large cake tin (round or square depending on your design)

Parchment paper

The first step in a simple Star Wars cake is a sturdy base, this will take about an hour to make with kids (including baking time):

Step 1: Heat your oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.

Step 2: Line your cake tin with baking parchment.

Step 3: Combine the butter and sugar in a bowl with the electric whisk. The result should be light, fluffy and a little sticky.

Step 4: Crack in the eggs one by one, whisking as you go.

Step 5: Add the flour and vanilla extract (or turn it into a chocolate cake by swapping the vanilla for cocoa powder). Continue to whisk. Finish by mixing in a splash of milk and a pinch of salt.

Step 6: Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes. The cake is ready when a knife or skewer comes out clean.

If you want to get extra fancy, you can scale up the flour, sugar and butter to 225g each, and divide them between two tins. After baking and leaving to cool for at least ten minutes, add a layer of jam or buttercream to one and place the other on top to create a layer cake.

We think the best way to balance awesome end results with ease of creation is to re-shape your cake and then ice your design on top of it. For that you'll need:

Ready-to-roll icing/fondant

Buttercream/frosting or jam

Decorative icing in your desired colours

Sharp knife

Parchment paper

Pencil

Icing piping bag

One of Star Wars' most iconic characters is also a relatively easy Star Wars birthday cake to make.

Step 1: Use a large square cake tin to make your base using the recipe above.

Step 2: Print out a picture of a stormtrooper head in roughly your desired size, put your parchment paper on top, and trace the outline in pencil. It has rounded edges at the top, and a slightly pointed angle at the bottom.

Step 3: Place the parchment paper on top of your cooled cake, and use a sharp knife to create a scoring mark along the top of the cake. Remove the parchment paper, and then use the knife to properly cut around your shape.

Step 4:  If the surface of your cake is very uneven, use a knife to gently cut along the top to flatten it out. It may still look a little lumpy, but a layer or jam or pre-made buttercream on top of this will make it appear flat. This will also help your icing stick to the cake.

Step 5: Cover the entire cake in ready-to-roll white icing. Roll the icing out on a flat surface (a little icing sugar on your counter will stop it from sticking).

Step 6: Drape the icing over your cake, and then gently smooth it down to prevent air bubbles. Cut off any excess along the sides with your knife, and smooth them over with your hand.

Step 7: Now it's time to add the black detailing. Fill an icing piping bag with black icing and, using your print-out, copy  the most distinctive features - the thick black line along the 'forehead', the eye holes, the mouth, the 'chin', and the ventilation slats along the side. Alternatively, use black ready-to-roll icing and cut it to shape (this is also easier to correct if you go wrong).

A Yoda birthday cake, you want to make? We recommend sticking to a head with ears rather than adding a body, to keep things simple. Read on to learn how.

Step 1: Bake one cake in a round tin using the basic recipe above, and another in a round or square tin.

Step 2: Pull up a picture of Yoda to use as your frame of reference.

Step 3: Take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool. Use ready-to-roll icing, in any colour, to create lumpy ridges along the top of the larger round cake in the rough shape of Yoda's face. The icing shouldn't be rolled flat - it should be bulky, to create dimension.

Step 4: Place two 'downward smiles' above the eyes (where eyebrows would go), add two rough triangles for cheeks, a lump for the chin, and some lines of texture on the forehead.

Step 5: Take your second cake and cut out two even ear shapes (use your picture for reference). Place these either side of the main face (you know, where ears would go). Add more icing on top of the ears, again not rolled flat, but bulky to create dimension along the edges.

Step 6: Take more ready-to-roll icing, but this time it must be green. Roll it thin, and drape it over the top of everything you did above. You will need a fair bit to cover both the face and ears, though you can do each section separately; just use your hands of a knife to smooth the outer edges together.

Step 7: Survey what you've done. Now may be the time to mould your ridges and contours around with your hands to mimic the picture you're copying. The point is that it looks a little lumpy and odd rather than perfectly smooth, just like Yoda's face.

Step 8: Cut out ready-to-roll black and white icing to create the eyes, or pipe them on.

How To Make A Darth Vader Cake: You can follow the stormtrooper recipe above, but remember to switch the white helmet for a black one, and use white icing for the detailing. He may be a baddie, but a Darth Vader birthday cake is sure to go down a treat. Your first step should always be to search online for an image of the character, so you know what you're aiming for. In the case of Darth Vader, the helmet outline shape is different to a stormtrooper's, as is the facial detailing. You could also consider using black frosting/buttercream to cover the cake rather than white fondant icing.

How To Make A Star Cake: If characters are a bit complex, keep things simple. We don't recommend cutting out the actual shape of a star for a cake base, since that shape is not really a part of the Star Wars universe! But you could cover a round or square cake in black fondant icing and add small white iced circles on top to mimic the background of the opening credits. Finish by icing the Star Wars logo on top in yellow.

Extra Easy Star Wars Cakes: If these still look a bit tricky, why not try simple cupcakes with an edible, themed topping that's pre-bought. Star Wars figurines and wafer-thin pictures are available online, and are easy to add to any cupcake recipe. You could also buy a Star Wars logo cookie cutter for tasty themed snacks.

There are so many characters, locations and  to choose from within the Star Wars universe, and we've only covered a few in detail. You could also try:

• A Death Star birthday cake
• A Millennium Falcon birthday cake
• A BB8 Star Wars birthday cake
• An R2D2 Star Wars birthday cake
• A Chewbacca Star Wars birthday cake