Darth Vader Cookie Cutter

Science fiction's most famous helmet, flattened into an outline you can press into dough. The shape survives that translation because it was always a silhouette first — the domed crown, the flared cheek panels and the tapered grille of the breathing apparatus read instantly as a single closed shape, which is exactly what a cutter needs. Themed baking is where cutters like this earn their place: birthday parties, a film marathon, Christmas trays where one shape does the heavy lifting and the rest are stars and trees. Gingerbread and shortbread are the usual doughs for a cutter with defined edges, and iced sugar biscuits give a decorator room to pick the mask out afterwards. It is also a friendly first project for a printer that has never made anything for the kitchen before.