Speaking of birthday cakes, my preschooler just recently turned 5! Did I really just say FIVE?!?! That means he'll be heading off to kindergarten this fall...full day kindergarten...as in gone all day. Ok, ok, I don't want to think about that right now! I'll get all sad and teary eyed and start wondering how in the heck 5 years flew by so quickly!
Anyways, he is into Star Wars everything right now. Star Wars legos, Star Wars movies, Star Wars light sabers, if it involves Star Wars in any way then he loves it! His favorite characters are R2-D2 and C3PO. At least 90% of his Christmas and birthday presents this year were Star Wars related.
For C's 5th birthday, we had a low-key birthday. No birthday party with lots of friends and lots of pre-planning. Instead we decided to have a family fun day and spent the day at an indoor water park. He LOVED it and had so much fun going on all the slides and playing in the water all day. Even his little sis had a blast. They both passed out in the car on the ride home which is proof that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Even though we didn't have a party, every birthday boy needs a cake and this year I wanted to make it. I surprised him with an R2-D2 cake! I believe his exact words were "this is the best birthday cake ever!" It melted my heart seeing how much he enjoyed the cake.
I didn't have a template or anything to cut the cake from. I found a couple sample R2-D2 cakes online to use as a guideline and just eyeballed it, trying to keep it as simple as I could. I made the same chocolate cake as I did for the Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake that I blogged about 2 days ago. I baked a double-batch into an 8-inch round (only used 1/2 of it for the head) and then 2 square cake pans to cut the body, arms, and legs from. Next I made some buttercream frosting (see recipe below) and divided it into different portions to color it white, blue, grey, and black. The red dot on his head is a red hot. That pretty much sums it up.
Classic Buttercream Frosting
Source: Savory Sweet Life
1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
3-4 c. confectioners (powdered) sugar, sifted
1/4 t. salt
1 T. vanilla extract
up to 4 T. milk or heavy cream
Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.
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