The making of BB-8

Hubs is a Sci-Fi fan. Big time. So this year for his birthday, I decided to go all out on his cake. I'd seen a video online about making a BB-8 cake, so I knew I had to try it! You see hubs is currently working on a multi-year project to build 1:1 scale working replicas of R2-D2 and BB-8. Mine would take considerably less time!

(yes, it was dirty on purpose!)

To make the cake, I used a set of pans designed to be used for making a ball cake - or a sphere as well as one additional small half sphere for the 'head'. This cake was a lemon cake with a lemon buttercream frosting.

The pans

The cakes, cooling.

While waiting for the cakes to cool, you'll need to make the buttercream and the modeling chocolate.

The buttercream can be of your choosing - I chose one that had a combo of shortening and butter for more stability.

The modeling chocolate is a combo of white chocolate (or candy melts) heated with corn syrup until lisquid. I added orange oil and coloring to achieve the orange color (and add flavor), then poured it onto parchment paper and allowed it to set overnight.

(looks a little like an orange version of "the Blob", right?)

Then you frost the two have circles into one whole sphere. You'll want to pop it into the fridge after you've gotten the buttercream on it - maybe for an hour or two. Now comes the messy part. slightly wet your hands and run them over the iced sphere to make it as smooth as you can before putting a layer of white fondant over it.

For the fondant, I was using quite a bit so I purchase it at Bulk Barn and kneaded in some almond flavoring since I thought that would go nicely with the lemon. Always add flavor to your fondant and when enrobing a cake roll it as thinly as you can while still being able to apply it without tearing. This way you'll have a cake that everyone is happy to eat - ALL of it!

Probably the most difficult part of the whole project is smoothing the fondant over the sphere. You can't use a flat fondant smoother - it just won't work, so smooth it as best as you can with your hands, being careful at the bottom to evenly distribute the pleats, cutting away excess and smoothing as you go. Fill in gaps with a bit of white fondant mixed with warm water to create a paste and smooth with a small offset spatula. I also use a rotating cake stand since it makes working with this, much easier.

Then chill and knead the modeling chocolate and roll it out into thin sheets in order to cut out the iconic orange rings on BB-8. I enlarged some schematics I found on the internet and used them as a guideline but used concentric round cutters to actually cut the rings. The details were cut using an exacto knife. Then using clear piping gel and a small brush, I attached them to the cake.

It's also a good idea to keep a photo handy, of what you want your finished product to look like. Then I cut small trapezoids for the spokes and attached them. Next you'll want to mix some white fondant with a small bit of black paste color to make a gray colored fondant and cut out the mechanisms that go inside the orange rings. I did this based on the schematics I'd printed and then gave them a good dusting with silver metallic finishing dust.

All the decorations were attached with clear piping gel. Just discovered the stuff and it works far better than anything I've used in the past to adhere decorations but be warned, once you place it, it's very difficult to move, so map out where you want things before you attempt to attach.

Next you need to get to work on his cute little head.

The trickiest part about this is cutting straight strips out of the fondant and modeling chocolate. You need a cutter that has parallel blades to do this, and even then it can be tricky. You can use an herb mincer or an adjustable fondant cutter.  I used small toothpicks to adhere the 'lenses' since they are on the heavy side comparatively then brushed them with some of the clear piping gel which dries to a shine to give it that glass look.

Then I popped on a tiny round of red fondant to mimic the red light within. Next time, I may do the lens with cast or blown sugar and actually put an LED inside!

Then using your photos as a guide, and the back side of a fondant knife, etch in all the markings, being careful not to go too deeply - you don't want to break the fondant. Then using a dowel that's cut to about 3 inches below the top, insert it all the way through the base until it rests on the cake circle. Then simply attach the head.

Now all that's left is to make it 'dirty'. This part was hard for me, only because it seemed sacrilegious to take a perfectly white surface and make it look dirty! But, soldier on I must, so I took a clean unused makeup sponge and cut the edges to make it bumpy. Then mixed colors; I used black, brown and yellow until I got a dirty muddy looking color, and dabbed it randomly over the body and head.

Finally I used to candles for the antenna - one was a thin white taper and the other a thicker black glittery candle! For the finishing touch, I iced the cake circle and sprinkled it with ground graham cracker to simulate sand.

We were so fortunate to have the May 4th birthday celebration coincide with an amazing party put on by the Saskatchewan Science Centre. They even had the cake delivered to the birthday boy by a Storm Trooper while the DJ played a cool Sci-Fi rendition of Happy Birthday.

This was my first attempt at a round cake and one as detailed as this - I had a lot of fun doing it. Give it a try because even if it doesn't work out - what's the worst that can happen? You get to eat your mistakes?