Star Wars Cakes: Death Star by Chocolate

This Death Star chocolate cake was one of three Star Wars cakes we made for the cake auction at our Cub Scouts' Star Wars Blue and Gold banquet.

Given the challenge of Star Wars cake decorating, the Death Star seems like a good place to start, since it's already round.

And I thought it would be an interesting challenge for a painting technique I've tried a couple of times before, of scraping off paint (or in this case icing sugar) with a credit card (not quite right, but it will all make sense later!)

Best of all, I thought, for this idea I could make a standard chocolate biscuit cake: a favourite classic British recipe for a very rich and chocolatey truffle style cake that sets in the fridge and doesn't require baking. This would keep my oven free and also ensure that at least one of my cakes was really nice (I can't see anyone not liking chocolate biscuit cake!)

Also it sold for about $20 more than it cost us to make it, so I count that as a success (nice generous people at the auction there!) 🙂

Chocolate biscuit cake is a fairly standard recipe that can be found all over the place, or made by experimenting with a lot of teaspoon tasting (ha! 🙂 ), but in this case I got this very simple and delicious recipe (without the topping) from mydish.co.uk . Here's how to make it:

How to Make 'Death Star by Chocolate' (a Death Star Chocolate Cake):

Cake Ingredients:
125g butter (I prefer salted)
2 tbsp golden syrup
225g digestive biscuits, crushed into small pieces (put these in a ziploc bag and bash them with a rolling pin, lots of fun for everyone 🙂 )
200g plain (semisweet) chocolate, broken up (I found the Lindt 75% cocoa chocolate was good but there are probably cheaper kinds that would work too)

Topping:
200g Plain chocolate
1oz butter
powdered sugar / icing sugar for decorating

Other Supplies:
Baking tray (I used the cheapo tinfoil kind from the supermarket, since I was giving it away)
Black paper or card for space background
Gold and silver stars
Greaseproof paper / wax paper

Tools:
7" round cake tin with push up or springform releasable base
double sided sellotape
pastry brush or similar (clean for cooking!) brushes
credit card
pottery tool / toothpick / other small pointy tool for scratching lines
A turntable or lazy Susan would be helpful for decorating

Tips:
Allow several hours for the cake to set.

Americans should be able to find digestive biscuits and golden syrup in Cost Plus World Market or a specialist British foods shop.

Method:

1. Cut out a circle of greaseproof paper to fit in the bottom of the cake tin
2. Grease and line the cake tin with greaseproof paper. Put the extra circle of paper on top, so it will be on the bottom of the cake
3. Melt the butter and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat
4. Mix in the crushed digestive biscuits
5. Mix in the broken chocolate and keep stirring until it's melted
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and put in the fridge to set
7. Melt the plain chocolate and butter for the topping, over a low heat
8. Pour the topping onto the cake, and put it back in the fridge for several hours to continue setting (the point of the topping is just to make it a flatter surface on top)
9. Cut out a piece of black paper or card to fit in the baking tray, and stick it on with the double sided tape. Put a couple of extra pieces of tape on the top side where you want the cake to go, then decorate the rest to make a space background.
10. 

    For Reference!
    The Death Star in Real Life (A New Hope). Photo via Wikipedia: The Death Star

    Have a look at some pictures of the original Death Star: we want it to be realistic after all! 🙂

11. When the cake has set, take it out of the tin and remove the outer paper, leaving the circle of paper on the bottom. Put it on a plate for decorating (at this point a turntable would help too).
12. Dust the top of the cake with powdered (icing) sugar, putting more on the side that will be lighter and leaving more of the other side dark.
13. Use the pointy tool to scratch in the lines the appear on the Death Star (suitable for blowing it up, etc...)
14. Use the brush, credit card, pottery tools and rubbing to dust sugar on/off, scrape it away or rub it into different areas to get more light or shade. The credit card needs a much lighter touch with sugar than it does with paint!
15. Carefully lift your Death Star on its paper circle and place it onto your space background on the sticky tape.
16. Store in the fridge until ready to serve, and enjoy 🙂

 
If you make your own Death Star cake, please post a link in the comments or send me a photo for posting. I'd love to see it, and I'll add it to my Geeky Cake Decorating board on Pinterest 🙂

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Links:

• StarWars.com: The Death Star
   
• "Planet Earth Abandons Death Star Project In Face Of Superior Galactic Imperial Power" StarWars.com, January 2013
   
• Star Wars Cookie Cutters from ThinkGeek
   
• Make Death Star Ice Cubes (Spheres!)
   
• Death Star Dress (yes, really!)
   
• Death Star for Charm Bracelets
   
• Death Star Watch
   
• Death Star T-shirts
   
• And finally... MyDish.co.uk: Chocolate Biscuit Cake!

 

 

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