A few years ago, my little cousin wanted a Darth Vader cake for his birthday. Sure kid...no problem....let's just ignore for the moment that black is one of the toughest icing colours to make (tends to look dark grey at best). So I make the cake - pull out every trick in the book involving black sparkles, black icing, black fondant - anything I could get my hands on. It took me about 3 hours to get it done. I even include a red glow stick in the cake to make it look like Vader had a light sabre.
Not bad... but then I realized I wasn't sure the cake would be big enough to feed all the party guests. With my leftover cake batter, I make a simple 8 inch round cake and had less than 15 minutes to ice it, scoop out a hole, draw some lines with a toothpick and voila! A Death Star to accompany Mr. Vader.
So wouldn't you guess it - when I get to the party, my cousin is more excited about the 15 minute Death Star cake than the 3 hour plus Darth Vader with glowing light sabre!!! I should have known...
