How To Make a Millenium Falcon Star Wars Cake

Birthdays are a huge deal for our kids. We go all out, every year, giving them one day to feel really special, like the king, or queen, of our little world. We start discussing and planning for the next one pretty much as soon as the party is over.  Although a lot of the talk is devoted to the type of party to have, the most involved discussions are about the cake.

I started out making my kids' birthday cakes when my oldest turned one. That first birthday was celebrated with ballet slipper pink and baby blue frosted cupcakes. The next year was our first foray into the world of character cakes with a cheery Elmo cake, a tradition that has continued ever since. Last year was the first year I abandoned the structure of Wilton cake pans to go free-form with a pirate cake for Jack. I was scared, but with the help of so many great websites filled with ideas, the cake was easy to make and so much fun to decorate.

This year, Jack kicked things up a notch by requesting a Star Wars cake. After browsing through a bunch of different concepts at Coolest-Birthday-Cakes.com, I decided to make a Millenium Falcon spaceship and decorate it with some Star Wars figurines. Another Google search directed me to the delightful Josh and Amy blog where Josh had carefully documented how he made a Millenium Falcon cake for his wife. His advice was invaluable.

I started out with two boxes of basic white cake mix courtesy of Betty Crocker and two containers of Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Vanilla frosting (they are the sponsors* of this post and the awesome giveaway down below). I used to make my kids' cakes from scratch with my favorite cake recipe, but they just didn't like the taste. They like vanilla confetti cake and they like vanilla icing, and that's what they want for their birthday and they're not shy about telling me to not get fancy. So now I give them what they want, and save my favorite cake recipe for my own birthday and my husband's. Plus I get to spend the time I save not whipping up my own frosting on decorating.

So without further ado, here is the recipe and step by step directions to make my Star Wars Birthday Cake.


Millenium Falcon Star Wars Cake Directions
Ingredients
2 boxes Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
2 1/2 cups water
2/3 cup vegetable oil
6 egg whites
2 bottles  Betty Crocker® Decors rainbow mix candy sprinkles
2 containers Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
1 Can of black Betty Crocker® decorating icing (with assorted decorating tips)
1 package of Kit Kat candy
1 package of Rollo candy
assorted Star Wars figurines

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two 9 by 12 inch baking pans.

 In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and egg whites with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir sprinkles into batter. Pour into pans.

Bake about 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife around sides of pans to loosen cakes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Print up image of Millenium Falcon to trace. Place on top of cake and cut cake along outer perimeter of drawing. As you can see above, my drawing was a little small, so I just used it as a guide but cut my cake to be large enough to feed 15 hungry boys.

 

• Cut the top section from the second cake. To make it easier to manipulate, I divided mine into different blocks. The center circle I then cut out again from the remaining cake to make it a high tower on top of the cake. You don't see that in the picture.

• Cut the edge of the top pieces on a bias to give your top layer a domed look. I promise that you are now done with the scary cutting portion of the project, and can now move on to the fun frosting and doling out of cake.

• Mix about a half a teaspoon of the black decorating icing into a tub of the white icing. Mix thoroughly and add more black if you have not reached your desired shade of gray.

• Apply a layer of frosting on the circular part of your cake. Lay the second layer pieces on top. Spread a little more frosting on the circle in the middle and lay on your top tower. Lastly, affix the gun to the left part of the ship, making sure to put plenty of frosting as glue so the gun doesn't fall off. The gun is not in the picture, but it is what is jutting out of the black and white drawing on the left. Belo

• Cover the entire cake with gray frosting. Decorate with additional black decorating icing to highlight ship details. I was afraid to use the black accents, but in hindsight, looking at the pictures, I wish I had used more. Then finish with candy pieces and Star Wars figurines.

To those of you with Star Wars purists out there, please don't take issue with the fact that this is Han Solo's ship and a young Anakin Skywalker is standing on it, years before the ship was probably built. My little birthday boy is much more concerned with the color of light sabers than actual Star Wars lore.

* Please note that as sponsorship of this post and giveway, Betty Crocker provided me with a Flip camera, a $100 gift card to purchase party supplies, as well as Betty Crocker product coupons via MyBlogSpark.

*** The winner has now been selected by random.org. Comment #49 was randomly selected and Sarah is our winner. Congrats Sarah and check out her blog, Solutions Sleuth, to read how she used her supplies! ***