No, I haven’t fallen off the Earth and died. With birthdays, four-day-long school field trips, and a bout of making easy things like sloppy joes and chicken on the grill, I just haven’t had much need for posting. This week, I should have at least a few new recipes, as I attempt to find things to feed us without heating up our kitchen or our bellies.

For my husband’s birthday, I made Darth Vader cupcakes. I cannot admit to thinking of these myself, but they ended up being awesome and much appreciated. That is actually a cupcake I made below. Who knew I had such patience!

I wish I could tell you that I made cupcakes and icing from scratch, but I did not. I didn’t even make my fondant by myself. I even purchased it (dun dun dun…) precolored so I didn’t have to mash it around and make it black. But here’s the process anyway.

1. Make 24 chocolate cupcakes however you like. Make sure not to overfill, you can’t have poofy tops. Ice with chocolate (I used dark chocolate fudge) icing.
2. Gather decorating supplies - black fondant, Twizzler pull and peels, white frosting (you can make royal icing if you have fancy cake decorating supplies, or you can get the stuff in the tube and buy the icing tips like I did), red sprinkles, and a bell shaped fondant cutout from a Wilson’s “Garden Shapes” collection
3. Take your pliers to that bell and make it look like Darthy there.
4. Roll out your fondant on wax paper or parchment paper until very thin (about 1/8″) and then cut out your Darth helmets.
5. If you are me, at this point, and you are attempting to do this in 85 degree heat with no AC, put those little helmets in the fridge for a bit to contemplate life.
6. Take your white icing and pipe little faces onto each one.



7. Pull your Twizzler pull and peels apart, and then cut each piece into thirds. Wrap the bottoms with a little bit of black fondant. (I found it easiest to sort of mash it onto the bottom, and then roll it in between my fingers.



8. Sprinkle red doodads on half of each cupcake.
9. Assemble, and don’t smudge too much stuff with your fingers (especially easy if its warm, I’m telling you!)

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 at 8:10 am and is filed under sweets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.