Separatist's War Council Meeting - Medium

For my oldest son's birthday, we decided to recreate the scene in Ep. 2 where the Separatist Council meets in the war room on Geonosis.  The scene was not all that hard to create, BUT it's big.  Really big.  This is one for a crowd!

First, I rounded up Hasbro figures of all the war council members.  A few extra Geonosians are good.  (I found most of the figures used on eBay and only paid a couple of dollars for them. The figures were a birthday gift for my son too - added to his collection.) 

To get the needed height, we started with Styrofoam rings from the craft store.  We stacked 2 rings then covered with red duct tape.  The Styrofoam also serves as a base upon which we built the walls.   We added dowels to give the walls extra support.  These also held up a wire ring (also from the craft store) that is used for finishing.  Note that we did cut a "door" in the ring.  There is a door way in the scene, and we used that little bit of Styrofoam to hold up the Geonosian in the air.

The walls are my favorite large-scale building material: Rice Krispy Treats.  I made 4 large (10x14") pans of treats - each containing a double batch of mix.  (Use the recipe on the back of the Rice Krispy cereal box.)  Let these set overnight to get completely firm, then run bamboo skewers through them and mount them upright on the Styrofoam base as shown.  Curve them carefully to create the room.   To be safe, I added a backing of heavy paper, and we looped some string around the dowels. 

The war room is covered in a rich reddish tapestry.  I used Froot-by-the-Foot, the red/blue tie dye flavor.  I believe 1 had 12 boxes.  (This comes in boxes with other colors - I used a few of the yellow/orange ones for the wall hangings, but honestly we had a lot left over that we didn't use.  I gave them to kids at the party.)  To make these, cut lengths of the ribbon that fit the height of your walls. Lay them slightly overlapping on a cutting board, then dipping a finger in a bit of water, moisten the edges. Use a rolling pin to press and seal them into a sheet.  Affix the sheet to the walls with toothpicks.  This is hard at first, but you pretty quickly get the hang of it! 

We added some LED lights around the base for fun.  


The holographic war table was the "cake" part of this scene.  My son likes snickerdoodles best of all, so I made 3 giant cookie-cakes using the Wilton 9" cookie cake pan.  (You can use my recipe or else 2 tubes of refrigerated cookie dough.  Sugar cookie and chocolate chip doughs work well.)  The table top was one of the cookies.  I trimmed the other 2 cookies into 6" rounds and used those for the base of the table.  (Use a 6" cake round as a template for trimming.  We just ate the leftover bits.)

 

The whole cookie cake served as the table top.  I turned it upside down, so the flat surface was on the top and placed an 8" cake round under the it so it could sit on top of the stacked 6" cookie bases.  You can see it here, after I pulled it off the base to serve.  
 

With the 9" cookie upside down on the base, I rolled white fondant and cut a circle using the cookie plan as a template.  I let this harden for a couple of minutes, then placed it on top of the cookie.  I then rolled red fondant and cut a 6" circle to go on top, as pictured.  I added the holographic details by gently warming and trimming gummy bears.  The large elements are 3 Swedish Fish, warmed and smushed together, with a toothpick to hold them up.  I had some pearl luster dust that I rubbed around the white edge to give it some shimmer. 

I finished the scene by positioning the Hasbro figures.  I hot glued one of the Geonosians to a clear plastic floral pick so he could fly over the scene.  The pick is inserted into a pit of leftover Styrofoam that we taped to the bottom of the scene to support him. 

Lastly, I covered the back of the scene with a bit of red fabric that I had left over.  It gave the war room a finished look from behind! 

Petranaki Arena - Medium/Difficult

Oldest son wanted this classic scene from Episode 2 for his birthday, but he doesn't like cake so much so he asked me to use snickerdoodle cookies.  The arena walls are all cookies, the rest is fondant and inedible decorations.

This treat requires some prep.  I started with a very large plastic plant saucer from Home Depot, then got 4 sheets of craft foam from from Michael's.  Greg was nice enough to cut a big hole in the foam so the saucer could fit inside.  (So the foam was like a collar around the top of the saucer.)  He then covered all the Styrofoam with brown duck tape.

The Styrofoam gave me added height for the arena walls, to help with scale.  It also gave me a perfect way to anchor skewers to hold the cookies up.

I also got a pine dowel at Home Depot, stained it Sedona Red, and cut it to 8" lengths for the posts. Using a glue gun, secure these to the saucer.

Make the figures and beasts in advance from fondant.  I made Padme crouching, to position her on top of her post.  Anakin and Obi Wan were flat, for positioning against their posts.  For all, I made the bodies and heads, but left them bald (piped on hair at the end).  Make little handcuffs from dark grey fondant.

The Geonosian was suspended on a clear skewer obtained from the florist dept at Publix,   Roll the wings very, very thin.  I made the legs and arms separately, then attached with 1/2 toothpick.

The reek was the easiest - make him out of dark grey fondant, with a very thin stip of red on the back.  Add horns.  I did the brown bumps later with icing.  I did use the end of a skewer to make indentations on the back, then I piped brown icing into the indentations to get the desired effect.

The nexu was made from brown fondant.  I also made the spines for the back from dark grey fondant. When assembling, I piped tan icing on top with a #16 Wilton tip.  I used a #2 black tip to add some of the brindling (see a pcutres), as well as the claws, and I inserted the spines on the back into the icing. No. 2 tip white teeth.

The acklay requires some experimentation.  I made the body out of blue fondant, which set up on a glass (on its side) to give it the rearing-up shape.  I went over the back and head with some water and diluted green food coloring when he was set.  I also make the legs.  Note that he has 3 vestigial toes.  My plan was to support him with a clear skewer, but I could not do that on the plastic saucer, so  I ended up attaching the legs to a bit of white fondant that I wedged under the body to make it stand properly.  You could see the white wedge, but it was not a problem.

I traced the saucer curve shape onto parchment paper and cut it out. I made 4 batches of snickerdoodle cookies, using a rolled sugar cookie recipe.  Chill the dough, roll a long strip, the use a pizza cutter to cut the bottom edge of the cookies to follow the curve of the saucer.  Cut the strips in approx. 3 " lengths, and using a large round Wilton tip (such as 172) cut a hole in each cookie approx 1/2 inch from the end.  You will thread cookies onto skewers with the hole, so try to get cookies that are the same width with the hole in approx. the same place!   Before baking, sprinkle sugars with cinnamon-sugar.   Width of the cookies doesn't matter as much - I make some wider for the bottom rows, then some narrow for the top.  But do keep the width the same, so you don't get gaps between the rows.

To assemble, fit a row of cookies around the saucer, covering 2/3rd of so of the circumference. Stick a long skewer through each hole, securing it well in the Styrofoam.  Fitting cookies in like a puzzle, build the arena walls.  You'll want a lot of the height behind the posts.  This took around 160-175 cookies.

The spires are fondant covered Styrofoam cones, just for effect.  I also used some fondant for the "doorway" on the side of the saucer.