A Cake Pan and a Dream

Okay so Tommy told me he wanted a Star Wars cake for his birthday...of course Lucas Films holds their copyrights very close, so I set out to figure out how get a Star Wars cake for his birthday.  So the next logical step...Google.  People in this world do amazing things for their children; there were a ton of cakes big and small - then I found the Wilton R2D2 pan.  Of course it was "retired" so the only way to get a hold of them is on Ebay.  So I called Mikey and said I need this pan, can you get it for me.  He asked me how much I was willing to pay for it and I said anything under $100.  We got the pan for $54.

The pan arrived and then I realized that actually meant I had to make Tommy's cake.  This is when I enlisted the help of premier cake makers Nana Cheryl Viale and Lisa Mitchell.  Nana Cheryl made Morgan's first birthday cake and it was wonderful so I knew I was in good hands.  I borrowed Lisa's 1/2 sheet cake pan and Nana Cheryl VERY kindly went to the Decorette Shop and bought me the proper supplies.

The cake pan came with a picture of the finished product and a detailed description of what we needed to do, so we were mostly set.  Now it was down to the baking.

I first made 4 batches of frosting.  It was quite the process but I finished that all in one night.  Then the next day, I baked the chocolate 1/2 sheet cake first and then I baked the yellow 1/2 sheet cake.  The R2D2 pan was the final cake to get ready.

Nana Cheryl came over and helped me frost first the chocolate layer, then we placed the yellow layer on top of that and frosted the entire thing with the white icing.  We then placed R2D2 on top of the finished 1/2 sheet cake.  It was time to start the artistic part of the journey.  We had to color three different blues for the R2D2 cake because he took white, dark blue, medium blue and light blue icing...so with a lot of  mixing involved we accomplished the different colors.

Then it was mostly paint by numbers...look at the picture and then put the colors in the proper sections.  Nana Cheryl helped me to the head of R2D2 and then we took a break.  I finished the rest of his body the next day. 

Then Nana Cheryl came over and helped me with the finishing touches and I made her write "Happy 4th Birthday Tommy" on the actual cake - because I am too shaky!  So here you go here are final pictures of the cake: