Star Wars Cakes: Chewbacca Chocolate Cake

This Chewbacca chocolate cake was the easiest of the Star Wars cakes we made for our cub scouts Blue and Gold Banquet Star Wars cake auction.

It's a basic chocolate sponge cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.

It does have a few more expensive decorations (marzipan, slivered almonds, chocolate buttons and red licorice) that I was also using for another cake, but at least some of these could be swapped for cheaper alternatives, or made out of fondant.

It's a pretty nice cake too: I tried enough of the cake and frosting while cutting it up and decorating it that this was the one I was most sorry not to be bringing back home with us afterwards!

And is it really coincidence that we saw Peter Mayhew at Denver Comic Con not long afterwards?? Probably 🙂

Here's how to make a Chewbacca Chocolate Cake (Tweet this!):

High Altitude Chocolate Sheet Cake:
Since we are in Colorado at a high elevation, I used a High Altitude Layer Cake recipe from allrecipes.com, which I adapted to make a chocolate cake by swapping 1/3 cup of the flour for unsweetened cocoa powder, and then used instructions from myrecipes.com to bake it as a 13x9" sheet cake instead.

Ingredients (Cake):
2 1/3 cups cake flour (self raising flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Ingredients (Frosting):
1 cup (2 sticks / 8oz) softened butter or margarine (or unsalted butter + 1/2 tsp salt)
3 1/2 cups icing sugar / powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
4 tbsp milk or cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Decorations:
Shallow baking tray to put it on
Cocoa powder for dusting
Small piece of marzipan or fondant for bag
Chocolate buttons, Minstrels or M&Ms
Small piece of red licorice or half a red M&M
Slivered almonds
Picture of Chewbacca to refer to. I used one where he was carrying a shoulder bag (see photo below).

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 ° F / 190 ° C
2. Grease a 13" x 9" x 2" deep baking tin
3. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl
4. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
5. Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture and mix in
6. Alternately stir in the flour mixture and the milk, mixing into a smooth batter
7. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 30
   

   Chewbacca shaped cake, with a tall head

   minutes, until a knife or skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

8. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool
9. Mix butter, icing sugar and cocoa or chocolate to make buttercream frosting. Use an electric mixer if you have one, to make it fluffier.
10. Place the cake onto a baking tray to decorate
11. Cut the cake into a gingerbread person type shape, with an extra tall head. I added extra cake from one of the corners to make the head taller.

1. Coat the Chewbacca shaped cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, using a fork to make a furry look
2. Dust the darker areas of Chewbacca with cocoa powder, using a small sieve or a sifter, to make the buttercream 'fur' darker brown in those areas.

1. Cut some brown M&Ms, minstrels or chocolate buttons in half and place them to make eyes, a nose and claws for the hands and feet.
2. Place a small piece of red licorice or red M&M to make the mouth.
3. Make a bag shape, using a small piece of marzipan or fondant dusted with cocoa powder.
4. Place a double row of slivered almonds from the bag to the opposite shoulder to make the shoulder strap
5. Use a pastry brush or paper towel to clean any extra spots of icing or cocoa from around him on the tray

1. Share and Enjoy!

Links:

• High Altitude Layer Cake Recipe from Allrecipes.com
• MyRecipes.com: "Can I use a recipe for a layer cake to make a sheet cake?"
• AllRecipes.com: High Altitude Cake Baking
• SavorySweetLife.com: Chocolate Buttercream Frosting with almond or vanilla
• Peter Mayhew on Twitter
• Chewbacca.com
• Starwars.com: Chewbacca
• Look the part with this great Chewbacca gear from ThinkGeek!

 

Comments?

Have you made a Star Wars cake? I'd love to see it! Post a link in the comments and I'll add it to my Cake Decorating Pinterest board 🙂

Click to post your comments here...
 

 

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