For our son’s 8th birthday, he requested a Homemade LEGO Mini-Man Head Shaped Cake. I’d seen the mini-man cake mold but unfortunately it was rare and hard to come by. So, I decided to base my cake idea on my son’s Lego storage container. It was large and round. I thought-“Hey, I CAN DO round!? My son was thrilled with the idea and gave his thumbs up. Being a novice, I was quite nervous but very excited! It turned out better than expected!
Our cake: 6-layer, Yellow FROSTED, double chocolate. (I used chocolate cake mix, Chocolate chips added to batter. Chocolate icing for filling. Easy on the choco-chips. Too much added and the cake may get too mushy).
Here’s how I did it. Hope you all don’t mind- but I have everything listed and instructions detailed. Being from a military family combined with a lil’ of mommy OCD, organization is in my blood! Sooo, here we go! This is a BIG cake.
Items used were:
3 cake mix boxes *your choice of flavor
2 15oz. WHITE creamy butter cream frosting (for crumb coating)
2 15oz. WHITE creamy butter cream frosting (for tinting & frosting the cake)
2 15oz. creamy frosting (for filling *your choice of flavor)
1 1oz. Wilton Lemon Yellow Icing Color (gel-like in small jar) Flavorless, VIBRANT yellow, Concentrated. A little went a long way.
1 7oz. tube BLACK Betty Crocker decorating Cookie Icing (Built in decorating tip. Perfect for adding the eyes/mouth easily.)
2 or 4 9in. round cake pans (make sure they’re the same size. Different brands can be off a little.)
1 9 ½ in. round cake board or homemade card board cutout
1 to 2 sheets Waxed paper, parchment or paper towel. (This will be used to smooth out your frosting.)
Start the day before especially if you only have 2 cake pans. At the least, do the baking, assembling, crumb coating early. As long as it’s crumb coated/refrigerated, your cake will be sealed. It won’t dry out and will stay fresh so you can frost it the next day.
Now for the INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1… FIRST TWO CAKE MIX BOXES: Prepare cake mix and bake according to instructions. You will end up with 4 baked layers to assemble. Allow cakes to cool. Level them to make them uniform in size. Dot some frosting on your cake board. This will “glue” your first layer down. Once adhered, assemble rest of the layers, applying your filling as you go. Allow all to set.
Step 2… Using ONE 15oz. tub of WHITE frosting- apply a crumb coat. (Refer to you tube.com on how to crumb coat. SUPER EZ! Makes your final frosting crumb-free & looking beautiful!) Refrigerate crumb coated cake when done.
Step 3…THIRD CAKE BOX MIX: Prepare cake mix. With your batter, THIS TIME- use the SMALLER 6 in. round cake pan. Pour batter in, filling approx 2/3 to ¾ of the way. Next, using the 9 in. cake pan- pour the rest of batter in. Fill to approx ¾ of cake pan. (Basically, you want to fill both pans as much as possible without having over- flow when baking. Might have some batter leftover which can be used for a couple of cupcakes if you like). Once baked, allow both to cool.
IMPORTANT *** DO NOT LEVEL your 9 in. cake round *** You want to keep the roundness so as to mimic the top of the LEGO shaped head. Do shave off where needed for smoother edges on top & all around. DO level your smaller 6in. round. This will be your top “peg” and would look nicer flat. Take out your 4-layer crumb coated cake. Place the last 2 layers on top along with your filling. Crumb coat with white frosting. Refrigerate to set. While setting, proceed to next step.
Step 4… TINT FROSTING: Using the last TWO 15oz. tubs of creamy WHITE frosting, empty both containers into a larger bowl. Add your yellow Wilton icing coloring, a little at a time. Stir/add until you have your perfect shade of yellow.
Step 5… Pull out your crumb coated cake. Make sure the last 2 layers of crumb coat are dry not sticky. Frost entire cake with your yellow icing. I recommend a cake spatula. Easier to spread icing.
AWESOME TIP: For smooth look, after frosting cake- REFRIGERATE. Allow frosting to “set” (MUST NOT BE STICKY/TACKY to the touch. If frosting sticks to your finger, it’s not set yet. Once frosting is set, tear large piece of parchment paper or use a paper towel sheet. Lay paper flat along one side of the cake. It should stick to your cake & not peel any frosting off. Keeping paper in place, gently rub your hand on the paper. This will smooth the frosting underneath the paper. Peel paper off, reapply to another section of cake & repeat smoothing technique. (For video search youtube: Cake decorating A Secret to Smoothing Icing).
Last step. With black cookie icing, add a face. LOTS of minifig expressions out there! Have your child pick their favorite one ;)
Our son and his friends couldn’t keep their eyes off our cake! I was thrilled with the outcome!!! And, making it myself- made it all the more special. I’ve made only 4 cakes, 2 for my daughter and 2 for my son, and I’ve learned something new with each one.
Best of luck to all on your next cake endeavor! Have FUN with it!
The cake looks fabulous! Thanks for the explicit details. I’m printing your instructions out as we speak. My son wants a Lego cake and the Lego block ideas scare me to death…nervous about using fondant in order to make the cake look perfect.
I’m crossing my fingers this will work out for me.
Thank you for the comment! We also thought about making the Lego brick cakes but covering those pegs I knew would be too hard for me to do with frosting. (One day I’ll get over my fear of fondant! lol). Wish you the best with your cake! Hope to see it posted :)
How many people did this feed? I am going to do a trial run of this cake I think before the big day next month!
Being a very tall cake, the slices were thin. Still was a nice amount of cake for a slice! We fed 8 kiddos and had about 2/3 still left untouched.
I’m so glad I came across this awesome cake! Thank you so much for the detailed instructions–I write things in great detail too and always appreciate when someone else does!