The Night of the Edible Planets

Last weekend was my oldest son's Blue and Gold Banquet .  This is the annual celebration for a Cub Scout pack in which all the boys' achievements are celebrated.  I was my son's proud "date" for the event.  The theme was "Out Of This World", and they had told us ahead of time that they would be presenting a trophy to the boy whose parent could come up with the most creative, theme-oriented dessert.  No pressure there, right?

We didn't win, but I thought I'd show off the clever little dessert we rigged up. (I'm usually the send-a-box-of-Little-Debbies mom, so when I do something like this, I want it documented for all to see!) It was actually pretty easy, and it could be adapted for a space-themed birthday party:

The sun is made from a 9" round pan, and the planets are cupcakes.  Here are a couple of close-ups:

You should've seen the desserts that won:  cookies made to look like Martian fingers and a 3-D solar system with gumball planets.  Serious stuff.