Mickey or Minnie cake - is cake mould the best way to do one?

[maggiethecat]

DD almost 3 is quite into the famous mice at the moment. Considering doing her a cake but the tin moulds on ebay seem pricey. Is there anywhere that I can get a decent priced one or do you think it can be done without a shaped tin?
The coloured icing looks like it would be tricky - has anybody ever done one?

[ja9]

google images 'mickey cake' or 'minnie cake' may give you inspiration - always works for me!

[maggiethecat]

I just did and would be mad to attempt any of them!

[ja9]

hmm... fair enough ! i'll blame the lateness of my post lol!

[scrappydappydoo]

Surely you can just do 1 big round chocolate cake and two smaller round chocolate cakes and ice on eyes and stuff? Fairly basic but at 3 they aren't that picky.
Alternatively do photo cake from asda??

[maggiethecat]

any idea how much photo cakes cost roughly?

[hophophippidtyhop]

just put the one I did on my profile. I used 1 8inch tin and a 3 inch one for the ears. I used this to get the outline, top right pic.
For the icing, I drew round the large cake tin, and then drew in the face shape. cut out the black. v shape bit and laid it on the cake. I did an outline of all the details in black royal icing( egg white and icing sugar in a piping bag), and left overnight to dry hard.
I then used fondant icing (made like glace but with fondant icing powered sugar) to fill in the colour. You could use normal glace icing though.

[maggiethecat]

off to school run, will have a look later

[mogs0]

Any good?

I got some Mario Bros cake toppers for ds' birthday and they were great!!

[maggiethecat]

Hophop, I'm truly impressed! That would be a big job for me but must say I'm tempted...
Mog, if I chicken out I will look at those toppers.

[ATortoiseisBetterThanABlackCat]

I was going to say cake topper too.

this one is nice

[Pumpkinbummum]

Yeap I was going to suggest doing one like hophop,
or do a red cake with a few mickey toys

these

or these

my dd2 wants a mickey cake too, today anyway we've got another few weeks to make up our minds

[Pumpkinbummum]

toys as toppers thats what I did for ds's mario cake think I have it on profile

[hophophippidtyhop]

Thanks, Maggie! I enjoy making them, but they don't always turn out so well! It was easy as long as you did it in stages. I did the outline and let it dry so the filling in wouldn't bleed through. you could use a tin can for the ears too. Also if you're going to do coloured icing it's worth getting the pastes rather than the liquid ones as they won't make the icing too runny. I bought some plates and things from here - I only had her cousins round so it was cheaper to buy 3 of each from this site, though you can buy packs cheaper if you need 6 or more.

[hophophippidtyhop]

oo, they do fairy cake toppers on ebay too. here

[ATortoiseisBetterThanABlackCat]

Yes they do fairy cake toppers too.
Very easy to use when i have no inspiration for a cake!

[maggiethecat]

Hop, take me thru the icing bit in more detail so I can follow the stages, eg, drape white icing over cake then.....

[hophophippidtyhop]

on that link i put, use the top right pic as your linear drawing, either print off and make bigger on a photocopier til the same size as your face tin,or, if you can't(like me) get a piece of baking parchment paper, draw round your face tin and freehand it on.

cut out the v head shape bit from your drawing, and lay it on the face bit.

have some royal icing coloured black in a piping bag with a small round nozzle. pipe a line on the cake following the v shape you've laid on it. I found this was good to be able to pipe the rest on in the right place.

draw on the rest of the features either winging it by eye, or cutting them out, laying on, and icing round them. remember if you bodge a bit you can wipe off and redo.

I then used the same icing to fill the black bits of the eyes, nose and mouth in.

I let it go hard overnight, but 5-6 hours might do.
I made up a batch of white fondant icing(it dries a bit harder than glace, though this would be ok too) coloured bits as i needed and filled in using a kebab stick to drip it in as it spreads.
recipe for royal icing here, though you only need about a quartef of that amount and don't need the glycerine.

fondant icing- buy in same kind of box, on shelf near normal icing sugar, mix like you would for glace, but with warm water in a bowl over a gently heated saucepan of water, not too hot or it will lose it's shine.
hope that helps, i can send a bigger pic if you like.

[maggiethecat]

Ok, think I'm following you. I thought you started off with white fondant icing backdrop and then added coloured icing on top (eg black v shape, eyes etc).
Will let you know if I need any more help and certainly will let you know if I give it a go.
Thanks!

[hophophippidtyhop]

you could do that too. hope you have fun!

[scrappydappydoo]

Maggie - just saw that Lidl are doing mickey cake moulds next week here

[maggiethecat]

Thanks Scrappy, just saw this and will check it out (never been to Lidl - does it mean that you cannot buy earlier than next week?)

[maggiethecat]

ok. just bought the silicone mould but it gives no instructions on quantities - what's the best way to work out how much cake mixture I need?