A few weeks ago, my friend Tye asked me to make her daughter Cadence's birthday cake. I gladly excepted because I haven't done much baking since Luci was born. The cake turned out pretty well and everyone at the party seemed to enjoy it.
Mission: Make Minnie Mouse theme cake to feed min 50 people.
Colors: Hot pink, white and black
I am super proud of how the cake topper turned out. Tye and I browsed some photos online and gathered ideas. My main focus was making sure the ear hat looked real and I really think I accomplished my goal.
The hat was made of rice crispy treats formed by one of my cereal bowl. I let it cure for a few days and then covered it was royal icing. Royal icing is like the cement of the cake decorating world. Since I wasn't able to apply it completely smooth I had to basically sand it smooth. I them had to make black fondant which was not easy. It took almost half of a Wilton black dye bottle to get a very small amount of fondant black. The ears are black fondant rolled thick, cut with circle pastry cutter and a lollipop stick inserted while wet. I had to use a nail to puncture a hole in the royal fondant.
For the bow I used a large circle of fondant and crimped it in the middle.
The added a "ribbon" of fondant in the middle.
Pink royal icing polka dots in varying sizes.
They were dried for a few days. The added texture and
a contrast of color.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
I decided to go outside of my norm and make a Swiss meringue buttercream instead of traditional buttercream. While it was fun and challenging to make I won't use it for cakes again. Swiss meringue doesn't "crust" like a traditional buttercream. While fine for a cupcake it isn't so great for cake decorating.
The Top Cake Layer:
8 inch Chocolate Cake with Nutella Buttercream Filling.
Bottom Layer:
12 inch White cake with Traditional Buttercream
Tye managed to write Cadence's name in the Disney Font
thanks to a great website we found (printers were not working).
I then traced it onto the hat and piped it on.
The Birthday Girl
Mission complete!
