Star Wars Cake help please!

[SugaryBits]

Could any cake experts help me out with some ideas for a Star Wars cake please! I know I could buy one but I would like to have a go at making one. I make a good cake but am not very creative so could really do with some ideas. I have found a couple of pics like this and this!! and this but wouldn't really know where to start with the decoration. Any ideas for something a bit easier would be much appreciated!

[MrsBadger]

no no no

Option 1: Tatooine
bake two cakes (whatever shape tins you have)
stick lumps of one to the other to make hilly landscape
ice with buttercream
sprinkle with demerara sugar to look like sand
add appropriate Lego or other figures

Option 2: Lava
Bake one cake
ice with red buttercream
place broken bars of Value dark chocolate smooth side up in icing to look like the chunks in the lava
add appropriate lego or other figures

etc

get the picture?

[MrsBadger]

lava cake along these lines

tatooine cake thus

[Hassled]

I went for a Light Sabre cake - basically (bought) swiss rolls with grey icing (the paste stuff from a cake shop) for the handle - chocolate buttons etc for the buttons - and then green icing for the light bit, which I covered with edible glitter. Looked impressive and dead easy. It was so long I ended up using a plank of wood as the base. Pea Green is your woman - she did have pictures of an amazing STar Wars cake (apologies if I have the wrong MNer).

[WideWebWitch]

I would have thought a light sabre cake would be the easiest to make!

[Lemontart]

we should get together - I have no confidence in baking the cake part (although I am a good cook - just not a baker) but will happily spend hours creating and "building" birthday cakes from bought ones

Another vote for the light sabre - easy to assemble and cover if you are not feeling confident, also easy to chop into slices to take home.

I use madeira cakes for assembling birthday cakes - close crumb texture make it easier to cut into decent shapes. Jame and buttercream for the "glue" and even the odd wooden kebab skewer can come in handy if you are building anything with a little height.

Another tip is that strongly coloured items on a cake need a little thought. Lots of runny food colouring mixed in can be a disaster (as well as a potential E number overdose!) Either use the pastes or try painting undiluted liquid food colouring on the final iced cake. Make sure the icing is dry and use a fine clean artist paintbrush. Just treat the liquid food colouring as watercolour paints and decorate away. If you use a cocktail stick to draw on any outlines of your design, this will help stick to the plan. Keep a bit of dampy kitchen roll to hand and easy to wipe off and start again before it has dried if you are unhappy/go wrong.

[SugaryBits]

Oh thank you so much- the light sabre just hadn't occured to me! Thanks for you ideas too Mrs B, I might make two cakes, one for his birthday and one for his party. Brilliant tips Lemontart, I will be following your advice. Thanks again everyone.