R2D2 3-D cake tutorial

I was stupid enough to agree to making a 3-D R2D2 cake for my daughters 12th birthday party. It was after refusing to make a 3-D C3PO so at that point I thought that I was up on the deal. It was so hard to figure out exactly how to make it that I thought I might as well just post all the details here so that other people don't have to go looking for everything and go through the timely process of making stencils. Of course for those artistic people or perfectionists this is not the place! This for those of us who can make a decent cake and know how to lay down fondant but apart from that are dependent on others helping us!
Beware, this is not an exact replica but it will pass as R2D2 if people don't look to carefully. Of course you can add as many details as you like to make it more life like!

What you will need:

For the legs (these are not cake)

• Thick cardboard
• Sharp scissors or a box cutter
• Leg stencil
• Strong glue
• Very thin cardboard
• 2 bamboo skewers (or something similar)

For the cake

• 2 6" round baking forms
• 1 6" spherical baking form
• 2 6" round cake card
• 4 bamboo skewers or dowel rods
• 1 6" very sturdy cake card or the bottom of your 6" round baking spring form
• 6" cakes (see below)
• Butter cream (see below)

For the decoration

(Sorry I don't remember the exact values of the fondant, these are an over estimate)

• 1 kg White roll fondant 
• 500 g Grey fondant
• 100 g Blue fondant
• Small piece Black fondant
• Even smaller piece Red fondant
• Silver dust
• 1 tbsp Vodka
• Paint brush
• Edible glue
• 4" tall jam jar or other glass container with a stable base.

The components:

For the legs:

These you can make well in advance since there are no edible parts! The stencil is for a 6" cake and for an R2D2 who is about 14" tall. The leg needs to be 1 inch thick. If you can find cardboard of this thickness it will reduce your work by one step, but it may not be worth it if it is too difficult to cut. I used the box that our freezer came in. It was very sturdy and since it's not coming in contact with the actual cake I didn't see a problem with using it. If your cardboard is not 1 inch thick cut out 4 legs, if it is 1 inch you only need 2 and can skip some steps. Make sure that at least one side has no print on it. Print might show through your fondant ruining the whole project.

Noticing that the stencil is not symmetrical use some strong glue to stick a square of cardboard between two cardboard legs to make the outside edges approximately 1 inch apart. Do this to the other pair of legs too and let the glue dry.

Once it is dry cut a strip of the thin cardboard, I used some thin card that was inside a tube of IKEA wrapping paper. The strip should  be as wide as the leg is because we will wrap it around the leg so that it can then be covered with fondant. If you don't do this your fondant will sink into the hole in the cardboard and have an unwanted texture.

Stick this strip onto the leg. Trim the strip with a box cutter to make sure that the edges are even. To reduce work I made sure one side matched up exactly and then trimmed the only the other side. You can also make sure that the side you are trimming is also in the back of R2D2, that way if you mess up it will not be noticed.

Set the legs aside to dry. Somewhere in the middle of the top section, on the inside (i.e. the worst looking side) poke a hole in the leg with a bamboo skewer. Make sure the skewer goes in far enough so that it is stable. This is what will hold the leg to the cake. You can have two such holes in each leg, although I found that one was enough to hold things together. Cut 2 - 4 skewers to 2 - 2.5 inches and set aside.

Roll out some white fondant and cover the legs. Use a single piece to cover each leg. Make the joint in the middle of the inside of the leg, i.e. where you put the holes for the skewers. If your fondant does not stick to the cardboard try dampening it with a bit of water. If that doesn't work you'll have to use edible glue. Allow the legs to dry. You can also do this step well in advance.

The ganache:

1 kg dark cooking chocolate
500 ml whipping cream

This needs to be made at least one day before you plan on making the cake. It's super easy. Cut up the chocolate into small pieces. Bring the whipping cream to a boil, remove from the heat and then add the chocolate pieces. Allow the chocolate to melt for about 5 minutes and then stir until all the chocolate is melted and well combined. Don't forget not to get any water anywhere close to the chocolate otherwise it will seize and you can't use it for your cake. I once tried flavoring it, but the flavoring seized it. I believe you can put alcohol in it, but you should check first. Let the ganache rest over night. Do not put it in the fridge! Once it is completely cooled you can cover it to keep any water getting in.

The cake:

Pick a light cake so as to keep the weight down, but one that keeps it's shape and can support the fondant. I used a chocolate mayonnaise cake. I made three batches, but that is because I messed up :( I think two would be enough. Unless you have four 6" round baking trays I would recommend that you mix one batch first and then when it is almost done baking you mix the second. Make four 6" cakes and one half sphere. To figure out if this is enough... the 6" round cakes should stack to 7.5" with the filling.

I filled mine with a simple chocolate butter cream (1 part butter to 2 parts icing sugar with a dash of cream and cocoa powder), but you can use any recipe you like as long as it hardens and can be left out for a few days without growing things. I probably made 375 g butter and 750 g icing sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa powder.

The fondant:

Get some good quality fondant that can be rolled. You might also consider getting some sugar paste to make the little nuts that stick out on R2D2's head especially if your fondant is very soft.
You should model any 3-D details in advance so that they get hard. There are only two important nuts. Both on R2D2's head.

Putting it all together:

Build up R2D2's body first. Place the first 6" cardboard round on your turn table fixing it with a bit of icing. Place your first layer onto this. I cut each of my 6" cakes in half to make it sweeter! Build up the cake to about 3.75" (halfway. I used 3 layers). Now stick in a bamboo skewer and mark the maximum height of the cake. Take it out and cut 3 - 4 pieces of bamboo all to the same height. Stick them in the cake at the corners of a triangle or square. If one of the bamboo sticks is too short you should take all of them out and re-cut.  Then place another 6" cardboard round on top of the skewers. The skewers will bear the weight of the cake that is to come decreasing the risk of the top part smashing the bottom part. Then put a blob of icing on the cardboard and stick the next piece of cake on top of it. Continue until you have a height of 7.5". End with butter cream.

Next put your cake in the fridge for an hour or so to get the butter cream to harden. This will make your whole structure a bit more stable.

Next ganache the side of your tube! https://vinitasfamilyblog.blogspot.de/2017/02/covering-cake-with-fondant.html . Let it dry a bit.

If you watch most of the tutorials with really elaborate fancy models you will see that they do the head separately. I just put the semi-sphere on top sticking it down with butter cream and then put the ganach on it.

Smooth the chocolate as best as you can. The smoother it is the better your end result. Any bumps will show through. Let everything harden. This should not take long.
The next thing I did was to place the cake on a glass jar. I did this so that I did not have to build a structure to support the cake. There are quite a few tutorials on how to build a structure. I didn't have the time for it and didn't think it necessary. I had to try out quite a few jars until I found the perfect height, which was a 4" tall German honey jar. The jar needs to have a large flat base.




The next part was covering R2D2 with fondant. I used shop bought fondant and did the bottom, white part first. Make sure that the fondant wraps a bit around underneath the body.

Next colour some fondant grey and cover the top. Use a very sharp knife to cut the grey fondant so that the joint is as clean as possible.


Mix your silver dust with just enough vodka to produce a paint. It should be thick enough to not drip but thin enough to spread evenly. Paint R2D2's head so it is silver.
I have no template for the accessories on R2D2's head. I just used this image for the front and this for the back. and cut them out free hand. You can see that my R2D2 is not exactly the same as the picture. (Image credit: Google cannot find the front image anymore. I believe it was a toy. If it's your image please get in touch with me and I will credit you or better still link your image to this blog. The back image is, I believe, a Lego mini-figure which also no longer exists.)

The next thing to do is to cut out all the bits and pieces and stick them on. Roll out your fondant and use this pdf as a pattern. I just printed it, cut out the pieces of paper, arranged them on the fondant and cut them out. Attach to R2D2's body with edible glue. If you use water the pieces may slip. You might have to hold individual pieces to the body until it's a bit dry if it slips.
Notice the grid on the front and how the background is dark? I achieved this by sticking the grid on an extremely thin piece of black fondant before putting it on the blue fondant.

I only cut out the pieces which were coloured. The white details I decided to score directly onto the fondant. I used the non-serrated side of a butter knife. The cake of course is not exactly the same size as the template and you can't help this because when you ice it it might come out a bit bigger or a bit smaller. Adjust the squares accordingly and don't worry kids are not going to look too carefully at the details.

Transport the body and legs separately and put them together on site.

ENJOY!