Minion Cake

My dad’s birthday was this weekend, he really enjoys the Despicable Me films so I decided to bake him a minion cake.

My first ever character cake!

I used a 9″ x 13″ sheet pan and used a vanilla sponge receipe for the cake itself. The one I use is designed for a 7″ round tin but it worked well for this – no batter spillage and baked well! Yay!

Wilton cake release is a God send – the cake popped easily out of the pan! I buy mine from Lakeland.

I added round sprinkles for a ‘funfetti’ cake and chocolate curls

To make the cake look like a minion cake, I followed this image from Pinterest as a guide (after making the cake I found Betty Crocker actually has a full tutorial! There method is a little different):

Here’s how I did it…

Make sure to let the cake cool completely before cutting or decorating!

Cut the edges of the cake to make an oblong shape.

Trim one end flat – this will be the bottom of the cake where the top of the minion’s trousers will be. I cut approx 2″.

For the frosting I used store bought vanilla and tinted approx 3/4 of it yellow.

Add a crumb coat to the cake with a thin layer of frosting and leave in the fridge to set – I left mine for approx 20 minutes.

Next add a thicker layer of frosting and smooth over with a pallet knife or spatula. It took 3 coatings to cover my cake but this was probably due to the funfetti sprinkles showing through. I suggest at least 2 coatings.

Put the cake in the fridge again to set for approx 15 minutes until the icing is firm.

For the blue trousers and facial features I used blue, black and white rolling icing and a blue edible pen for the details.

Using the black icing add an outline to the blue trousers and roll thin sausages shapes for the mouth and hair.

Cut out a circle from the white icing for the minion’s eye and add to the top centre of the cake, I used a small black circle for the pupil and a thin sausage shape for the outline. You will also need to roll 2 thick sausage shapes for the straps of the googles.

Add the mouth and hair prepared previously to the minion and add details, as required, to the trousers.

The finished cake:

Not perfect and there are a few things I’d do differently if I tried this or a character cake again but I’m really pleased with it. 🙂