Millenium Falcon cake

Last week I got the privilege of working on a birthday cake for our nephew's ninth birthday.  He requested a LEGO Star Wars cake.  I took quite a bit of time writing this post, because I worked really hard on the cake.  Honestly, I'm really proud of how this cake turned out.  Usually I look at a cake after I complete it, and I want to pick it apart and whine to Nate about how horrible it is.  I'm not saying this cake is perfect by any means, but I think I did an OK job on it.

I knew nearly nothing about Star Wars and even less about LEGO Star Wars, so....

Step One:  Research.

This consisted of convincing Nate that we should play the LEGO Star Wars Saga game.  As you might guess, it didn't take much convincing at all for Nate to get the game.  :)

We got it for the PC, not really knowing what to expect.  This is the deal- it's fun.  And it's the perfect game for us to play together.  It's 2-player...perfect.  It's simultaneous play...perfect.  (This is much better than the Mario Galaxy game for the Wii that we tried to play together, which consisted of Nate playing and me occasionally having to wave the wand at the TV to pick up some sparkly stuff...)  Not only is it simultaneous 2-player play, but you share the keyboard...perfect.  (hehe...that means we have to sit rightnexttoeachother to play.)  Finally, this game takes you through all of the movies...perfect.  I know next to nothing about Star Wars.  The game (kind of ) leads you through the plot lines, and your husband can teach you about the characters and the story line as you go.

The not-so-perfect part of the game is  that a couple of times I have gotten MOTION SICK while we were playing.  Seriously.

At any rate, I'm glad we are playing through the game- it's a fun way for me to be a part of Nate's video game world, and I learned some about what my nephew is interested in too.

I had to decide on the type of cake I wanted to do.  I knew that a lot of people try to do a lot of cakes, and they fail at a lot of those cakes.  I wanted our nephew (and his dad...who loves Star Wars too) to be able to look at the cake and KNOW what it was that I was attempting.

I chose to do a "ship" cake, and I asked Nate which ship would be a good one to attempt.  (Again with the not really knowing enough about Star Wars to appear knowledgeable...)  We ended up with the Millenium Falcon.  It's the ship that is most recognizable that is also the most cake-able.

Step Two:  CAKE

Decorating this cake wasn't too difficult.  The plates on the top of the ship were really time-consuming, but the cake was not difficult.

If you're curious, to make the plates, I cut them out of fondant and let them dry.  Then I used the small end of a piping tip and cut little dots out of the fondant.  Finally, I wet the plate pieces and placed the little dots on the plates to make them look like LEGOs.

I covered the cake with gray fondant and then attached the plates to the top of the cake.

Enjoy.  :)