(To skip my Mommy rant about my cute 3 year old, scroll down to "Party Details")
My Son is turning 3, I never thought he would have an interest in Star Wars until he was older, WRONG! In fact, the more I have browsed pinterest the more I find this fascination is quite common at his age. Now that I thought about it, it makes perfect sense - Light Sabers, Mysterious man in black with a cape, Light sabers, Flying vesicles, oh and light sabers! Yes, it makes perfect sense.
As a parent we teach our children right from wrong, good and evil....my son chose the dark side, his mentor, Darth Vader, and he is so proud. He walks around in circles breathing heavily, hands clasped behind his back, mumblimg "Impressive, Most, Impressive!." After which he takes his collapsible light saber, pushes it into his stomach as if it had gone right through him, dramatically drops to the floor, gasping wearily "Fatha (father), Fatha," Twitches a few times, and dies.
It was time to plan his birthday party. Planning birthday parties for my boys is my hobby. The party is pretty much for me but looks like its for them. Being creative in multiple subjects, different materials is Heaven to me, and then I found Pinterest......
There was NO question as to what kind of party he would have. My older son never knows what kind of party he wants until the last minute. "D" My younger son, turning 3, would return home from other birthday parties with an entire review and what he would like done at his party. You can imagine my joy of discussing this with him, we even sat on Pinterest searching "Star Wars" for ideas, pinning things we liked.
The other part of my party planning hobby is doing it on a budget. I prefer homemade decorations for the most part, I think its more personal and again, its my hobby of choice.
Party Details!
My Idea for this party centered around Glow in the Dark and Darth Vader. I purchased black table cloths, multiple types of glow sticks, Neon clear balloons, Glow in the dark plastic stars and planets, Star Wars table cloth, glow in the dark puffy paint, and 2 black light bulbs.
I started the party at 7pm, since it doesn't get dark until then - I thought. It actually got dark after that, so I had to use several black table cloths to black out the windows in the living room and kitchen - it totally worked!
Invitations: I searched Star Wars images, picked one I liked and used a program that came with my 8 year old computer to put my sons face in the image. Then opened it in "Paint" and added on the blue box and text.
Party Decorations:
* Blacked out the windows using black table clothes
* All the lights where out except for a table lamp with a black light bulb in it.
* Black light replaced in back porch light fixture
* Used Glow in the dark puffy paint to draw giant Darth Vader's face on black table cloth and duct taped it to the wall
* Glow in the dark stars and planets stuck to black table cloth covering kitchen windows - nice backdrop behind the cake table
* Star Wars table cloth over cake table
* 97 Cent Star Wars plastic cups to hold forks and neon straws
* Stuffed Darth Vader toys and memorabilia we already had placed around the living room
Party FUN!
*Neon-clear balloons blown up with activated glow stick bracelet stuck inside. I thought the kids would have fun tossing and kicking them around- Nope - They had an absolute blast turning it into a game of popping them to get the glow stick out- EVEN BETTER!
* Once all the kids were able to pop the 30 balloons, it was dark by then, they gathered the glow sticks and took them outside to play - Then, another game they made up! The oldest boy there took all the glow sticks, Threw them all over the backyard and all the kids scrambled to pick up as many as they could, brought them back to him. REPEAT! They thought it was the best game EVER! It was equal to the joy of a pinata exploding, except it kept repeating! Parents could watch their kids get more and more worn out with each rotation. You're Welcome!
Party Favors:
Pretzel-light Sabers!
Pretzel Rods dipped in white chocolate that has been colored blue and red. the base of the pretzel rod wrapped in foil. The picture below does not show them wrapped in foil, I wrapped them, placed them in treat bags and got busy...you can also see them finished HERE
Party FOOD!
The best part about starting the party at 7 P.M. is you only need to serve cake, punch, and water.
YODA SODA: 2 liters of Squirt soda + 1 container of lime sherbert = That's it, and it was so good!
The Cake:
"D" Made it quite clear he wanted a Darth Vader cake, I thought I could convince to go with a light saber cake.
No, he wanted a Darth Vader cake. While dreading the challenge I was secretly thrilled of course.
And so the journey began...
1. Used 2 boxes of chocolate cake mix, following package directions and adding 1 egg yolk to each cake mix. Filled one bundt cake pan, and 2 rounded dome shaped pans that are intended for making ice cream cakes - it worked. After the cakes cooled I wrapped them really well and froze them overnight.
2. Icing/filling: Marshmallow Cream frosting with crushed Oreo cookies
Marshmallow cream frosting recipe:
1 can Marshmallow cream + 1 can Vanilla frosting + Crushed Oreos = Yep, that's it, and its awesome!
4. The marshmallow cream frosting was a great binder and held much better than just a store bought frosting alone.
5. Assembly: Cakes sliced and filled while still frozen. Bundt cake sliced in half, filled/frosted, stacked back together, then filled the center hole with mini marshmallows to support the cake stacked on top. Bundt cake topped with more frosting and the next cake stacked on top. That cake was sliced and frosted as well, also frosted on top, then topped with another cake. Then, the whole thing was covered and frozen again.
6. Carving Darth Vaders Face
The only tips I can offer are saving the leftover cake shavings, mixing them with frosting (kind of like the way the original cake pops are made) and using the "paste" to fill in and soften the gaps and edges, helping to define features etc. The rest was luck....seriously....This was my very first 3D cake and I haven't used fondant in 5 years and when I did, it was for a simple dome cake....yeah, this was pure luck....If anything maybe practice from my ceramics class in high school 12 years ago was helping.
7. Once the cake was "carved" I melted some frosting down and did a thin crumb coat, then put the cake back in the freezer for 20 minutes.
8. The Fondant:
I made the Black Marshmallow Chocolate Chip Fondant the night before and let rest in the fridge over night. This fondant was fairly easy to work with, definitely easy to make and it tasted good for those who wanted to eat it. I rolled out the fondant, and formed it onto the face of the cake as best I could. Once the fondant was in place I spritzed it with water to "erase" the powdered sugar.
Then I had to add the fondant piece to the back for the helmet. I tried this 3 times, it wasn't until the second application that I realized I needed support to flare out the helmet, otherwise Darth would have been sporting a very cute Katie Holmes Bob (Remember that?). All I had were pretzel rods.....
I frosted along the pretzel rods and placed the fondant back on for the third time...it was a charm ;)
Finishing Touches:
I used leftover black fondant, rolled out thin, cut into thin strips. Used the strips for 3 pieces across the bridge of the nose and 3 for the mouth piece. (Now that I'm done, I wish I would have done thinner strips for the mouth and had 5 rather than 3)....oh well
Questions and comments are welcome!
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