Marshall's 5th Birthday

This is my 1st go at a proper 3D cake. Again borrowing sibling's children's occasions my sister suggested Yoda & I ran with it. Evidently Yoda has evolved as the new 'Clone Wars' version of Yoda is not much like the original Yoda of The Empire Strikes Back era at all. After hunting Google images for the right Yoda I ended up making his face more 'Clone Wars' as his facial features are more pronounced (& so easier to sculpt!).



Cheating again I used store bought iced Madeira cakes, the kids don't mind and it saved me hours- knowing how long this decorating could take I wasn't keen to be baking as well. I also omitted the crumb layer again. I wish I didn't this time though as the vertical surfaces needed it to make the fondant adhere better.

The green was an issue. I knew it needed brown in it so added 'browning agent' to the green but that made the fondant a bit soft due to the extra liquid. I had chocolate fondant aside to make the walking stick & light brown cloak so I'm kicking myself I didn't use that to add to the green instead, it would have stayed harder then.



I started with the under layers 1st, so some green for under his clothes, and a white undershirt over that. Then I draped 3 panels of brown for the back and front panels of the cloak. At this point I had to stop and make some toes! I used 'i' letter cutters for the toes and the nails, then gave them a squish to point them a little.



After adding the sleeves it was apparent that things didn't want to stay where I'd put them, so I made a temporary paper corset until they hardened. As I was being blasted by air conditioning this didn't take long at all.



Moving on to the head I basically squished a big glob of the green/brown fondant around a plastic ball, plonked it on top of an upturned egg cup and started sculpting the features on, copying the clearest pic my sister could find on Google.



I haven't done any sculpting since grade 12 (15 years eek) so it did occur to me at this point that I might be out of my depth...



...but once I added an eye I figured worst case scenario I have an alien cake on the ready so all would not be lost. And so I carried on squishing & poking with my trusty $2 shop carving tools until I was satisfied it vaguely resembled Yoda. To mount the head on the cake I used skewers, it was pretty heavy & I didn't want his head rolling anywhere, it might frighten the children!



For the arms I got lazy and laid a ribbon of fondant over the chocolate fondant cane and sculpted on hand features and squished on nails. At this point I was over the idea of sculpting hands individually.



The ears were trouble from the outset, so they are made over skewers to support their weight. I also left the end on to help hold them onto his head. Had I have made them a day ahead they may have set hard and not needed skewers, but I didn't... so they did.



I was unhappy with the cloak so pressed in some lines to give the impression of folds. Happy then I was. (OK that will be the only time I swear, sorry).



Here is a close up of his ugly mug. I didn't go all out trying to make it smooth as there was really no point with him being an 800 year old green wrinkly alien.



My criticisms are that I should have rolled the fondant for his outfit wayyyyyyy thinner, but I didn't have my pastry mat so this was as thin as I could get it. As a result he ended up a bit chest heavy looking. I also wish I made his head bigger to make his proportions better, but I'll get over it.