Mumsnet Talk

I have foolishly promised ds an R2D2 birthday cake. My plan is to take a chocolate sponge, some white and blue icing, and edible glitter, and try and make R2D2's head. But with a regular chocolate sponge it will obviously be a bit them wrong shape. Is there any way I can make it more dome like? Am not convinced buttercream icing would be up to the job, and I've had no other ideas.

Make the cake in a pudding basin? My mum used to do that & then stuck a leg-less Barbie into the top & iced it so it looked like a dress!

It might be hard to make sure it's cooked all the way through if you did it in a pudding basin. Could you do a two dimensional version and just cut the shape out of normal cakes?

Pyrex bowl

My friend makes fantastic cakes and she uses pyrex for thise sort of shapes

Pyrex bowl will do the trick. Just make sure you make a madeira cake, rather than an victoria sponge. It'll hold the shape better once it's cooled.

Cook slowly and if the top starts browning too much, put some tinfoil over it.

<<shudder at the though of an R2D2 cake. Never again!>>

Thanks for all the advice. Off to buy a pyrex bowl!