So FINALLY got around to putting up this blog (too long overdue). If anyone is tempted to give this a go, please do. Given that his face is all wrinkled, it's much of a muchness whether he perfect or not!
After doing the Monkey Cake, this was easy enough from an assembly point of view. It was the face that took the most time. So I will try explain with a series of pictures how it all came together.
Firstly you get a deep 8" tin and a metal pudding bowl if you can (I got mine in Tescos) and bake your standard Victoria sponge mix in them.
Once the biscuit base is set place on a wire tray with plenty of greaseproof paper or tin foil underneath. Melt some chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water. I like to use milk chocolate to cover, but some recipes say dark chocolate. Pour the melted chocolate all over the biscuit base and smooth out with a spatula. You get all the excess chocolate dripping down the side, hence the paper under the wire tray. Then get mini Cadbury Flake bars and placed them around the edges while the chocolate is still melted. As the chocolate cools and dries, it'll make the flake bars stick to it.
Next to assemble Yoda!!
So take your 2 cakes and pear down the bottom 8" cake to be the same width as the top cake.
Cover the sponge in Betty Crockers chocolate fudge icing in order for the fondant to stick to it. I have it propped up on my turny-table here to make it easier to move the cake and not your hand. You can get these is most bake shops or online
I first placed light green fondant on the top to act as his neck. Now this colour fondant is going to be his face as well, so do plenty of fondant of that colour so you won't have a difference in colour. To get the slight raise for the neck I just put a lump of the light green fondant on top, and then a circle of the light green fondant over that to hide it (super clever!!). Then I placed a piece of brown chocolate fondant over the front for his chest, cut in the shape in the picture. My advice is to buy actual chocolate fondant rather than die a white piece brown because brown is a very difficult colour to get right. Remember this only needs to be to the front of his body as I will be covering his back with his cloak.
Next for the head; you get a Rice Crispy treat and mush it until it is the shape of a ball. I used this for the head and it is lighter than fondant to sit on the top of the body, therefore less likely to fall over. You stick a bamboo stick through the body, right down to the bottom, and then stick the head on top of that. This ensures it's securely together.
I am going to place fondant over the head to make the face, however you need to cover the head in some butter cream so it will stick. The Rice Crispy treats aren't tacky enough for the fondant to stick, especially after you've pawed it to get it in to shape.
After doing the Monkey Cake, this was easy enough from an assembly point of view. It was the face that took the most time. So I will try explain with a series of pictures how it all came together.
Firstly you get a deep 8" tin and a metal pudding bowl if you can (I got mine in Tescos) and bake your standard Victoria sponge mix in them.
The you make the biscuit cake base. I used the Royal Wedding Cake recipe (Law Dee Daw!) and it is deeelish!! Now it is strange with the egg in it, but I'm thinking it cooks in the hot chocolate. Meh! So according to the recipe, you break up your Rich Tea biscuits in to the same size as almonds and mix that in to the chocolate mixture. Now a trick that I read about was to take outer ring of a spring-form tin and grease it with butter. Then get a flat baking tray and place a the spring-form ring on it. You then pack in the biscuit cake mixture tightly in to the tin and pop in the fridge. If your running low on time just pop it in the freezer.
So take your 2 cakes and pear down the bottom 8" cake to be the same width as the top cake.
Cover the sponge in Betty Crockers chocolate fudge icing in order for the fondant to stick to it. I have it propped up on my turny-table here to make it easier to move the cake and not your hand. You can get these is most bake shops or online
Next for the head; you get a Rice Crispy treat and mush it until it is the shape of a ball. I used this for the head and it is lighter than fondant to sit on the top of the body, therefore less likely to fall over. You stick a bamboo stick through the body, right down to the bottom, and then stick the head on top of that. This ensures it's securely together.
To get the bumpy face you need to place lumps of fondant in the places you want raised; eye sockets, nose, cheeks, etc, and then cover over with a large piece of fondant. This allows you to shape the outer fondant and get all the dips and crevasses you need to perfect Yoda's scrunchy little face. Now the face takes quite some time, and you could be digging in with your shaping tools for hours. My advice is to have a picture of Yoda in front of you, and try replicate that.
The ears were very difficult as I did them with fondant icing, stuck in on cocktail sticks, but in hindsights the fondant was too heavy because they kept dropping down. Now that's just me being fussy, you may think they look fine in the picture (you nice people you) but they could have been better held together I think.
The final bits are rolling out a large piece of white fondant to wrap around him for his cloak. His arms were the same fondant rolled in to sausage and placed on his sides, draped around to the front. His fingers & feet were the same green fondant as his head. To get the effect of the bottom of his body you take your brown fondant and crinkle it so it's like his bunched up trousers, if that makes sense. This will stick to the butter cream you have covered the whole sponge in.
To finish you place him on top of your chocolate biscuit cake, which I covered in melted chocolate and framed with mini Cadbury Flake's..............all fortress like you know.
So there it is at last, my blog on how I made the Yoda cake. As you can see above, it was not an easy one, but it did all come together in the end!!
