Baby Yoda might just be one of the cutest things on the internet right now. Just like everyone who doesn’t live under a rock, I relate so hard to Baby Yoda. I needed to bring the cuteness home, so I tried to in the form of a giant cake pop Baby Yoda.
There have been some incredible, hyper realistic bakes out there since the release of The Mandalorian, but if like me you aren’t quite at that level, this is an easier Baby Yoda cake that’s still adorable.
Originally I was going to make a tiny body out of cake rather than cake pop, but after baking the cake and assembling the body with the head, I decided it wasn’t going to hold up structurally when made with gluten free cake. It had started to crumble away from the dowling in the middle, I feel proud that I pulled it back from this instead of giving up and eating the cake right then.
The head was definitely too heavy to support cutting the sphere for the face. Perhaps it would have held up without the body, but I didn’t want to risk travelling with it, and so he became a giant cake pop.
This is going to be a long one, I don’t blame you if you just watch the video.
You will need:
- Hemisphere cake tin (optional)
- Hand or freestanding mixer
- Sieve
- Large bowl
- Cling film
- Heatproof bowl over a pan
- 8 inch cake board
- Rolling pin
- Cake smoother (optional)
- Small sharp knife
- Small ball modeling tool
- Leaf modelling tool
- Eye & ear template
- 2 X 20.5cm cake dowling
- Small food paint brush
- Blusher style food paint brush
Ingredients
Cake
- 80g (6 tbsp) salted butter
- 280g (1 ½ cups) caster sugar
- 200g (2 cups) plain gluten free flour
- 40g (6 tbsp) extra dark cocoa powder
- 3 tsp baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- ½ tsp xantham gum (optional)
- 240 ml whole milk
- 2 eggs
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 80g (6tbsp) butter
- 250g (2 cups) powdered icing sugar
- 25ml whole milk
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
Ganache
- 200g (1⅓ cups) dark chocolate
- 200ml double cream
Decoration
- 500g green ready to roll fondant
- 100g brown ready to roll fondant (optional)
- 10g white ready to roll fondant
- Black gel food colour
- 1 tsp white spirit (gin or vodka)
- Pink edible lustre dust
Cake
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 170°C
(325°F Gas Mark 3)
Grease your tins (hemisphere if you have them).
Step 2
Cream the butter and sugar together with a stand or handheld mixer.
Step 3
In a separate bowl, mix together the gluten free flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and xantham gum. Sift into the butter and sugar then combine with a spoon or spatula. Once mostly incorporated, rub together with your hands until the dry ingredients have a sand-like consistency, with no large lumps left.
Step 4
Whisk together the milk, vanilla extract and egg, pour half into the dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Then add the rest of the liquids in two steps, scraping down the sides and beating between additions. Finally turn up to high speed and beat for a minute.
Step 5
Divide the batter between 2 greased hemisphere tins or 3 layers of 8 inch round tins. If you don’t have hemisphere tins this won’t matter, as the cake will be crumbled later anyway.
Bake for 30 minutes.
(25 minutes for 8 inch tins)
Set aside to cool completely. I often pop them in the fridge after 5 minutes, to speed up the process.
Step 6
In a large bowl crumble the cake up with your hands. This should be easy, finally something gluten free cake is good at!
Buttercream
Step 1
Cream the butter until light and fluffy, then scrape down the sides.
Step 2
Add the powdered icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Beat on low speed until the icing sugar is combined.
Step 3
Turn the speed up to high and beat for 5 minutes.
Step 4
Add the buttercream to the bowl of cake, mix until combined and press together with your hands.
If you don’t have hemisphere tins, at this point roll the whole cake pop into a ball, flattening one side using a work surface to make the shape for Baby Yoda’s face. Wrap in cling film and leave to set in the freezer for 20 minutes.
If you have hemisphere tins, line with cling film and press half the cake pop into each leaving a gap one side. To make the gap the same in each I put my fingers flat against the edge and pressed the cake in around them, this is to make a flat side for Baby Yoda’s face. Leave to set in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Ganache
Step 1
Roughly chop the chocolate and place in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
Step 2
Continuously stir the chocolate until there are no lumps left, just gorgeous molten chocolate.
Step 3
Pour the cream into the chocolate and mix until even. The cold cream should help to set the chocolate again so it will start to thicken immediately.
Step 4
Transfer to the fridge for 5 minutes or until firm enough not to slip off a spatula. Use like a buttercream to cover the cake. If you have two halves for the hemisphere tins then sandwich a thin layer of ganache between the two.
Once smooth press your thumb into the face of the cake where you want the eyes, creating two indents. The ease of shaping is another advantage of making a cake pop rather than a standard cake.
Leave in the fridge or freezer to set.
Decoration
Step 1
Take a knob of green fondant and divide it into two, roll these along a flat surface to create sausage shapes. These will help raise the shape of Baby Yoda’s eyebrows, so stick them on the cake above the indents you made earlier.
Step 2
Warm up ¾ of the remaining green fondant in your hands and roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly dusted surface. You want the circle to be about 12 inches in diameter. I rolled mine quite thick to ensure the cake would be covered smoothly.
Step 3
Cover the cake with the rolled out fondant, cutting away excess fondant with a sharp knife and creating two seams on each side of the head, which will be covered by the ears. By making two seams you can really smooth the fondant into the shape of the face. It’s possible to smooth with your hands, but I would recommend a cake smoother to get the best finish here.
Step 4
Using a small ball tool score a line above the eyebrows to accentuate them, and a line below to sketch out the eyes. Next run the ball tool from between the eyebrows, towards the back of the head in multiple lines, then score across these lines a few times to create Baby Yoda’s distinct wrinkles.
Step 5
Make a small U in the centre of the face. Smooth the indent out with your fingers to make his nose. Use the ball tool to score small lines under the nose for his mustache wrinkles and finish the mouth with the leaf tool to make a curved line for the mouth. From each side of the mouth use a ball tool to curve outwards making the cheeks look chubbier.
Step 6
Roll two small white fondant balls and place in the middle of each eye indent. This will help to raise eyes, giving them the curved appearance.
Roll the rest of the white fondant out and use a sharp knife and my eye template to cut out the eyes. Place these on top of the white fondant on the face.
Step 7
Take a knob of green fondant and roll into 4 sausages for the eyelids and under eyes. I measured mine on the cake and cut to size there. Apply the under eyes first and smooth into the cake with a ball tool. Then repeat with the eyelids.
Step 8
Insert the dowling level with the eyebrows each side, until the two almost meet.
Create two cone shapes about 10cm long and carefully slide on to the dowling, this will add 3D shape to the ears. Is it just me or are you getting Shrek vibes?
Roll out the remaining green fondant as thin as you can and cut out the ear shape using my template. Gently wrap the fondant over the dowling, folding in the middle with the widest part closest to the head. Press the two sides together and trim the bottom with a pair of food scissors. Finally use the ball tool to blend the ears into the head.
Step 9
Take the small food paint brush and transfer a bead of black gel food colour to a food paint tray or a clean lid. Dip the brush in a white spirit and then the gel to make a paint. I used gin but vodka will work. Use the leaf tool to faintly trace the shape of the iris in each eye then fill with the food paint.
Step 10
Finally use the blusher style food brush, to brush the pink lustre dust in small circles on the cheeks, a tiny dab on the mouth and a streak along the bottom of the ears.
You can leave Baby Yoda like this or roll out the brown fondant and cut a strip with a knife to make a collar to finish Baby Yoda.
May the force be with you.
The Bakery At Home 