A Birthday Cake for the Birthday Boy

I "kind of" promised an almost 6 year-old boy a Star Wars birthday cake... and all he got was this Candy Birthday Cake!

The Un-Star Wars Birthday Cake

Well, technically, I didn't promise a Star Wars cake, but a "special" cake. After making a princess birthday cake for 4 year-old Maya in October, I had told Owen (Maya's brother) that I would make him a special birthday cake for his 6th birthday in November. I asked him what some of his favorite things were and what kind of cake he would like, and all I heard was a blur of words about Star Wars... something, Star Wars.... Episode... #?, Star Wars... Chewbacca..? Chew.. what? Star Wars... Vader? I guess you probably get my point. I know nothing about Star Wars and if I have lived all my 56 years without feeling the need to know, I can live the rest of my years without knowing anything about Star Wars! I'm apologizing to all of you Star Wars fans now for my first and only time!

Because a Star Wars themed cake wasn't going to happen, I needed to come up with another idea that Owen would like. I didn't want him to be disappointed that his cake wasn't Star Wars and I wanted it to be as cool as Maya's cake. I googled boys birthday cakes and scanned through several pages of very boring cakes. What to do! I kept looking and happened to see a Flicker picture of a candy cake made of Kit Kat candy bars and M&Ms. I decided why not, kids like candy, kids get excited when they see candy, I'll give them candy!

I thought this will be easy, no special trips to the store, it will be a breeze, I can do it in my sleep. Maybe in your world but not in mine. I baked the cake the day before. It was called Funfetti, with lots of colored dots inside which looked like a great party cake. It baked nicely, I got it wrapped up and ready for the next day. So far so good. Next, I went into town to get the candy and a few other things that afternoon. After paying, I picked up my bags of "other things" and didn't pick up the bag with the candy in it. Of course, I didn't realize that I didn't have the candy until that evening. Dear Hubby said, Let's go into town and find it so you have it in the morning. We head into Newberg, we go to Freddies, they have the Kit Kat bars but not the M&M's, we go to Bi-Mart, they don't either. We go to Safeway, they have the M&M's. Things are looking up, good thing because it is going on 9pm. the very afternoon that I was putting the cake together. Now, I had an unexpected trip into town for chocolate frosting. Such is life sometimes. 

It's now the day of the party and I am putting the cake together, and as I am putting Funfetti frosting between the layers, I realize that I should have had brown/chocolate frosting on the sides so that the white frosting doesn't show through between the Kit Kat bars. Now, I have created another unexpected trip into town for chocolate frosting. Such is life sometimes. Or maybe it's just me! I get an idea in my head about how I want something to be and then I will tear down walls to find it! Just ask Dear Hubby, he has helped me through almost 38 years of this!

I went and bought the frosting and finished the cake before 3pm in the afternoon and the party wasn't until 7pm, so it all worked out. I didn't know for sure if I wanted to keep the bow around the cake, because I didn't want it to be too feminine, but I decided to keep it on for the party.

Ready for the party

The next challenge was transporting it to the party, which involved a mile long gravel road, cardboard and aluminum foil and floating M&M's. Don't even ask, the story would take too long to explain. Thanks to Dear Hubby for making it all work out, again!

Owen and Maya

Blowing out the candles

The candles are out

The birthday boy eating his Kit Kat bar

and more Kit Kat

I don't think he missed having a "Star Wars" cake at all. He hugged me and thanked me several times for making his special cake. That made it worth every minute of my time, just to see the kids happy faces.

This cake can be put together fairly quick if, big IF, you have everything you need on hand. 

What you need:

• 1 2-layer cake, filled and frosted

• Giant Kit Kat bars- it takes 39 single Kit Kat to go around an 8" cake. I broke them in sets of two, that makes 18 doubles and one single. Make sure you get the "giant" size so they are tall enough to reach the top edge of the cake.

• 1 bag M&Ms, use colors of your choice

• Ribbon- if desired 

• Candles

Have fun! Create your own design! Play with candy!

Enjoy!