This Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake was inspired by a trip to Disneyworld taken last fall. Our youngest daughter, Abby, has been in love with Minnie & Mickey since then. The design for the cake was from variations of other cakes we found by looking online.
A few days before the party we baked and froze all the cake layers that we needed, including 2 eight inch rounds, 2 ten inch rounds and a Pyrex bowl for the Minnie head. We have learned that frozen cake layers are MUCH easier to work with when icing and decorating, especially if you are new to cake decorating.
The day before the party, we prepared several batches of buttercream icing for the cake – 2 batches tinted with Wilton Rose gel coloring and 2 batches prepared using the Wilton buttercream recipe for pure white icing. We made a batch for the Minnie ears using buttercream, but found that we could not get it tinted completely black. Instead, we used fondant and were able to tint it successfully.
We colored and cut the remaining fondant and used it for most of the cake accents. The polka dots were cut using the opposite end of a decorating tip. The small Minnie ears were made by printing out a template and using a knife to cut each shape. We added a bow that was also cut from fondant. The number and letters were cut with cookie cutters and made from fondant as well. All the small polka dots were buttercream frosting. The ears were made from black craft foam which we tabbed at the bottom so they could be inserted more easily. The large bow was formed from a long strip of fondant.
Once everything was made, the cake actually went together easily. For us the most time consuming part was the preparation beforehand. Special thanks goes to my friend Crystal for all her hard work and dedication to helping me create these wonderful cakes for my children. Happy 2nd birthday Abby!!
Great Job! I like it that you didn’t use all fondant. I am going to make my daughter’s cake and would prefer mostly butter cream with fondant accents. Thanks for the tips on freezing the cakes!
Going to make this cake for my Grandaughter Sienna’s 2nd birthday in March. Never worked with fondont before but gonna try, I’m using marshmallow fondont. tastes great. Wish me luck.