I have to say I was a bit surprised when I my cousin called me last week and asked if I would make a cake for her daughter’s birthday. Not just any cake, a Mickey-themed cake. Always one up for a challenge (and an inability to say no), I decided to give it a shot.

My first decision was how to represent Mickey. Do I do a sheet cake with a picture of MM? Do I do a cake and buy some MM toys? The obvious was to do a MM shaped cake, but it daunted me a little. Yet in the end, I decided to go for it.

I didn’t want to buy a MM cake mold pan but wanted to do his face. Surfing the internet, I decided upon doing MM’s face using three cakes. I used two 6-inch cakes as MMS ears and one 8-inch cake as his face. Each cake was 2-layers thick. For the icing I used a cream cheese frosting. Fitting, isn’t it? The mouse cake with cheese frosting J I opted against black icing for a few reasons : 1. It stains your teeth and 2. Since I was using so much black, it would get messy and gooey. Instead, I bought a package of Oreo cookies, scraped out the cream, and then food-processed the wafer part. NOTE/CAUTION: Feel free to use store brand cookies but it will not produce the blackness needed for MM.

I added the frosting in between the two layers and then coated the outside of cake in frosting, making sure the “ears” joined to the “face.”

I then looked at an image of MM that I wanted to use and free-handed the face with a toothpick. You could print out an image and trace but I didn’t have the time to go searching and printing for one pick enough. I then added the cookie dust to the ears and the outline of the face, pupils and nose. I let the cake dry overnight.

For MM’s skin, you can either buy copper food coloring and add to white frosting or make your own. The store was out of copper so I was left playing with food coloring. I then attached the start tip to my icing bag and piped in MMs face using my skin tone frosting, red, white and darker brown I’d concocted.

Not only was I pleasantly surprised with the results but my cousin and the guests were as well, at least those who knew I’d made it.

BOTTOM LINE: TIME-CONSUMING! If you have the time and dedication, definitely possible. I would make these types of cakes again. Boy, are my children going to have the best cakes EVER!