Icing this cake - white buttercream?

[jennimoo]

I'd like to try to make this cake for DHs birthday.
www.easy-cake-ideas.com/star-wars-birthday-cake-2.html

I think I can make the shape ok, but you're then supposed to cover with white buttercream, and normal yellowy colour would look wrong. I thought about buying a tub of the pure white stuff in the shops but find buying 'frosting' feels like cheating!

What would you do? Is it possible to make white icing or should I cover with a layer of white fondant? Or just buy the tub: I am pregnant and have a toddler so perhaps should be making it easy!

Bit of milk in your buttercream makes it whiter.

A drop of blue food colouring makes it whiter.

Buy the tub, no one need know! You can buy buttercream whitener online which works well, but if you have easier options available then take advantage

I looked at the tubs of fr

Frosting today and none if them actually were white, all standard butter icing colour!

I looked at the whitener on amazon but some of the views talked about the chemicals in then not being great so not sure...

Do you think I could cover with white fondant then stick the other bits to that, rather than following the instructions?

Stealth has made that cake and blatherskite made a snowy skislope white using trex icing. Hold on i'll send them both over here to you.

OMG that is not an easy cake. It's not covered in buttercream though, that's fondant. Buttercream would just be the base layer. If you want buttercream white, add a teeny bit of milk and beat like hell (I put a timer on and leave my KitchenAid to it for 5 minutes after it has all come together).

Then get the buttercream as smooth as you can, and chill really well, then smooth again with a knife dipped in hot water, before covering with fondant

... And Good Luck. It nearly killed me, and then Maureenmlove when she did it a year later (we were both working without instructions though, so maybe we just did it wrong...)

I will link to my effort later when not on my phone

.. Thanks for the bat signal, DW

See expert help has arrived. Blathers is out getting pissed but says if you must use buttercream replace butter with trex and it'll be pure white but you'll need a flavouring like vanilla extract as it'll be very sweet.

Post your pic stealth!

I thought you were talking about me and my valiant cake making efforts. I'm no good at Disney's Bolt but if you want <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1301&bih=642&tbm=isch&tbnid=78l0EmCkOHHCDM:&imgrefurl=starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yoda&docid=W8XuGankF9QK7M&imgurl=images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130402044061/starwars/images/d/d6/Yoda_SWSB.png&w=475&h=547&ei=W7K8UZH5EIb60gX51YDADQ&zoom=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">yoda I'm your woman (same cake)

I had an utterly brilliant, amazing, true to life bolt cake for DS's 6th birthday. Not one person asked how I'd made it, every single one was "ooh where did you get that?"

Bastards. Accurate, but still...

LOL Stealth. I want to see the Bolt cake now.

[stern] you'll get me into trouble with my family DW...not supposed to have PC turned on.

here is my attempt. Maureen's may still be on her profile.

Wow stealth, that's fab!

The instructions on my link do just say to cover with buttercream then stick the fondant shapes on which I thought sounded fairly easy...

Might abandon the idea for this year as big bump and 2 y old DD 'assisting' might mean its too much!

Any simple ideas for a cake for a geeky DH?

Sorry, OP, I have just read the instructions on the link and it does indeed sound less insane easier than the approach I took. See above comments about white buttercream - either beating like hell (will give you something white enough to pass for white as long as you don't put it against something really white, or Blathers' Trex version, which is definitely white but the idea makes me shudder a little.

Go for it. If we have scared you off completely, try googling death star cake - there are some good tutorials around for that, and it's less cake (your link is 6 layers of cake plus dome, although they are only 6" wide. My R2 had the mother of it's recipient feeding cake to random passing strangers for a week to get rid of it all!)

I think I'll try r2d2, I was planning on scaling right down: I have a very small pudding basin and hoped I had a ring cutter the same size, so planned to just make a big tray of cake to cut up.

I did plan to try the trex recipe for DDs came, but managed to get the colour I needed with normal buttercream. Might try half and half?

I'm back! No getting pissed for me as I was driving but I was out which was exciting enough in itself.

Trex frosting is super sweet and not as gross as you'd think - you're just swapping vegetable fats for animal ones after all. It lacks the creamy edge that butter gives it though so it is just sweet if you see what I mean so needs a little vanilla frosting to take the edge off it for adults. Kids don't seem to mind and I have a friend who's children actually prefer the Trex frosting after trying it when she made a lactose-free cake and mine love it too.

When I did DS's ski slope (pics on profile) I wimped out and added some butter and it started off white but did seem to yellow over time so the cake that was pure white the night before the party was slightly too yellow for my liking by party morning. Next time I would definitely go pure Trex.

I think if you followed stealthsquiggle's advice to chill the cake and then re-smooth with a warm palette knife, you could probably get the cake smooth enough not to need fondant - but then I avoid fondant where ever possible as I don't really like working with it.

Thanks for the info, love the ski slope cake, and the pizza is fab, such a good idea!

So I'm going to go for a mini r2 cake with normal buttercream in the layers and trex buttercream on the outside, with the fondant 'bits' stuck on after.

DHs birthday is a week Tuesday so better get a shopping list together!

I've made to cake and cut out the shapes, and popped them in the freezer. Fingers crossed I can ice it ok!

I swear by Sugarflair's super white. It's amazing stuff! Just a white powder you beat into batter or icing and you can get it very white! Very simple and easy and doesn't affect the flavour at all.

Well the cake is iced with the trex (which tastes ok btw!) and looks ok, just need to add the fondant pieces and r2 is all done.

I'll post a pic if he lo

Looks ok.