Daleks vs TARDIS

For our Doctor Who party, we made a cake display with a gingerbread TARDIS and some hostile Dalek cupcakes.  I was inspired by the breathtaking work online.  Ever try an online search for 'Dalek cakes'? Who knew so many people were making Dalek cakes?

To make the Dalek cupcakes, I modified Tofu Guru's decoration technique by making six extra-deep cupcakes (found an extra deep cupcake tin at Michael's Craft Store) with one shallow cupcake on top of each one.  I used two boxes of spice cake mix to make the six Daleks and an extra dozen cupcakes for the party.

To make the gingerbread TARDIS I fashioned four walls and a graduated series of squares for the roof.  I used a box mix for the gingerbread.  I really should have made my own gingerbread, but I was pressed for time.  The problem with using the box mix is that it often produces a softer gingerbread than does a recipe from scratch, I find.

Before baking the gingerbread, I pressed a clean Lego window to make the window shapes, and then used the opposite side of the Lego to press the square shapes on the TARDIS doors and walls.

I used a bottle of gin as a rough template and to help support the walls as the royal icing dried. The royal icing was made from meringue powder, which I always keep in the pantry.  (You never know when the urge will strike to make a gingerbread house.)

For the roof I stacked the squares and iced them, allowing the roof to dry completely before adding it to the TARDIS.

To give the TARDIS that lovely blue color I covered it liberally with blue sprinkles.  It wasn't easy sprinkling the walls, so I ended up using a spoon to blend those sprinkles into the wet icing.  I covered the top two smallest squares with yellow sprinkles before adding them.

Inside the TARDIS, I put a tall plastic cup to support the heavy roof.  No one will see the cup, and anyway, we all know that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside.