For my son’s 9th birthday, my daughter and I built a LEGO Star Wars Death Star Cake. My sons all-time favorite LEGO set is the LEGO Star Wars Death Star. When we designed the cake, we realized that just having a Death Star with furniture and ships would be too plain, so we added figures.
My Darth Vader Edible Figure is based on the Darth Vader LEGO mini-figure from the LEGO Star Wars Death Star. I used the actual LEGO figure to size my figure so that mine would be approximately the same size as the LEGO mini-fig, i.e. somewhere between an inch and one-half to two inches tall. The figure looked better than the picture because the picture was taken on macro and is much larger than the actual figure.
I used Black Powdered Food Coloring to color a small amount of the candy modeling clay to be used for the body and cape of Darth Vader Place a small amount of coloring onto white candy modeling clay that has been flattened somewhat and fold it over. Kneed the candy modeling clay until the all of the clay is the same color throughout.
I like to use powdered food coloring better than paste food coloring because if the paste bottles lay on their side, they tend to seep out and color their storage container. In addition, the powdered food coloring is more versatile because you can use powdered food coloring with candy as well and paste colors do not work to color chocolate candy.
I made a basic body shape and used a knife to make slits in the bottom for legs. I made a basic shape for a head and placed the head on top of the body. I found it helpful to look at the head from a side point of view to sculpt the breathing mask for Darth Vader since it sticks out. I used a toothpick to help shape the face. I used a toothpick to make indentions for his eyes. I used a toothpick to make the ridges in the collar of Darth Vader’s outfit.
I rolled out arms, and used a toothpick to make a slit for his thumb and placed the arms on the figure. I did not do fingers separately since LEGO figures don’t have fingers.
I made his belt by rolling out a thin snake of black and placing it around his waist.
I made a cape by rolling out a thin piece of black candy modeling clay on a piece of parchment paper or a fondant mat. I use Wilton’s Roll & Cut Mat. Do not use a fondant imprint mat, because your candy clay will have a pattern imprinted on it. Cut out a black shape similar to this one for the cape. To shape the cape, I made a hat shape over my little finger then placed the cape on Darth Vader.
Also I used Red, Green, and Black Powered Food Coloring to color a very small amounts of the candy modeling clay red, green, and gray to make the border of the control panel and buttons on the front of Darth Vader’s costume. To make the control panel, cut out a small black rectangle and place it onto the front of Darth Vader. To make the control panel border, make a very thin snake out of gray and place around the outer edges of the control panel. Place tiny pieces of colored red, green, and gray candy clay to make the bottons. Use the end of a toothpick to place the tiny colored pieces. Be careful not to touch the tiny pieces or they will fall off and have to be replaced.
I used a small paint brush (again reserved only for food) to paint the silver marks on the top of his outfit using vodka and Silver Luster Dust Food Coloring. I used vodka with the Luster Dust so that the luster dust will keep it shine. If you use water, the Luster Dust will lose its luster and will not look very good.
I cut out a light saber out of a small sparkle red candle. Be sure to leave enough room for the flame on the candle and still have it long enough to be a light saber once wax is melted to form wick. Insert candle into Vader’s body so that it is supported and make sure that the figure will stand.
I placed the figure on its back to dry so that it does not get shorter and dumpier while drying.
Here is a picture of Darth Vader on the top deck of my son’s LEGO Star Wars Death Star Cake. This picture also shows the conference table and the tower guns along with a Dred Priest figure. The Dred Priest figure is there because my son really likes Dred Priest.
