Minion Cake #tutorial

I made this cake for my sons birthday Movie/Minion party here

Movie/Minion Party

I will admit and apologise from the start that this isn't the best tutorial. As y'all know though I'm not a professional cake maker, I have also never made a Minion cake before and as always I get too caught up (paniced) in the making then forget to take pics!! I also had a little disaster with this and not a lot of time but I can honestly say once I got going it was one of the easiest cakes I have ever made.

As an idea I baked them on Friday let it cool, then iced them Saturday morning, let them harden and decorated on Saturday evening; all ready for Sunday. I find doing it in stages much better to fit around the boys but its also great to let cool or firm up and then easier to make...so without further ado.

Bake the Cakes

You will need to bake two 6 inch round Madeira cakes and the same in a dome tin so 3Xs the following amount. - If you don't have a dome tin you could just bake an extra 6 inch round and once completely cooled carve it to the shape.

Line the tins.

6 inch Round tin and a Dome tin.

Greaseproof paper

To Line, draw around the tin and cut out 2 circles. Then fold a piece of paper big enough to line around the full tin, fold in half and then fold an inch of the bottom up and make slices into it to make a fringe. Place one of the circles in the greased tin, then put the long piece fringe side down inside and then seal with the other circle on top. 

Ingredients

Butter 150g

Caster Sugar 200g

1tbsp Vanilla Paste

3 Eggs 

Plain Flour 225g

Baking Powder 1 1/2 tsp

Hot Water 3 tbsp

1. 1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4.
2. 2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, vanilla seeds or vanilla bean paste and extract with an electric mixer until very light and fluffy, about 2-3min.

3. Add one egg at a time and mix well

4. Add flour and water alternatively until well mixed and the batter is smooth. Pour into prepared tin and smooth the top. I did one 6inch round and the dome together then once cooled I cooked the other 6inch.

5. Bake for about 65mins or until a skewer comes out clean and the top is springy to touch. Leave to cool and remove from the tins. I had a little trouble getting the dome out but a sharp knife around the edge and a bit wiggling it popped out perfect after all.

Prep and Ice

You will need to make a batch of butter cream by 

beating the following well.

Ingredients

110g Unsalted Butter - almost melting, I sometimes stick it in the microwave for 10secs

60ml Semi Skimmed Milk - room temperature.

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract.

500g of icing sugar.

Also.

Jam or Nutella

M and Ms

Once the cakes are totally cooled level them off by cutting off the top as even as possible and then just with the rounds (not the dome) cut them in two layers so you get more butter cream and Nutella or Jam. I use a ruler as a guide, once the top was off they were about 6cm high each so I sliced in half at 3cm high.

Now here is the disaster!! 

This has never happened to me before AND the skewer came out clean but on one of the rounds there was a huge uncooked bit in the middle or an air bubble. I was short one time and had ran out of eggs too so didn't want to cook another and wait around 4hrs to be ready again including a trip to the shop. 

So I had a little think...and it just came to me PINATA cake! The outer ring was well cooked and solid or wouldn't have been able to do it but I just scooped out the gooey bit then used a water glass to cut a circle out and filled it with M and Ms....wish I had actually planned it in as the kids loved it! 

So you can either do this with Jam and somthing like skittles or gummy bears or Nutella (no contest for me) and M and Ms. So I used the round cake without a hole in it - the husband and resident engineer said this would make it more stable. 

I put a layer of butter cream and then Nutella in the middle I repeated with the 4 layers and scraped a bit around the inside of the hole.

 I poured in M and Ms - it took 1 and half bags. I then sandwiched the dome on top and give it two coats of buttercream all over. Don't worry if it looks messy and awful this is why its called "Dirty Ice"

Make a Minion!

A Cake board, I used a 12inch thin.

3 packs of Yellow Fondant.

1 Pack of Blue Fondant.

1 Pack of Black Fondant.

1 Pack of White Fondant.

Tiny bit of brown fondant or coco powder 

mixed with some white for the eyes.

Silver edible Metallic powder.

So now you have this iced.....lets say a dome, you dirty minds. I covered it in Yellow Renshaw icing, I wont lie it wasn't easy in one go and you could have rolled out a strip and put around the sides then cover the dome and blended it, it wouldn't have mattered either because the goggle strap could have covered the seam but I'm lazy and just did it in one and smoothed like mad with a bit of a seam at the back.

I then rolled out the blue and made a thick strip with a ruler and pizza cutter just to be accurate and attached around the base using some water so the base of the dungarees.

I then cut 2 equal strips about 2cm out of the blue and a pocket again attaching them with water.

Too much fun at this point so not many pics....

I then rolled out the white and using a little tea cup cut out 2 circles. I mixed a little bit of the white and black fondant to make a grey, rolled this out and cut out 2 more circles with the teacups and then cut the centres out with an icing nozzle to make the goggle rings. Place these on top of the white circles with a bit of water, then attach two small brown circle's and a dot of white to make 2 eyes.  

I then attached both the eyes with water. I rolled out the black and cut another 2 strips with the ruler and pizza cutter to make goggle straps and attached them around the sides. On the seam at the eyes I placed a little roll of the grey fondant either side to make them really look like goggles. I then added a few little spikes of black for the hair. 

I rolled out 2 sausage shapes for the arms from the left over yellow fondant and attached them. I then did the same for the legs out of the leftover blue. I modelled two feet and two hands out of the black and attached them along with 2 black buttons.

Finally I mixed a bit of the metallic silver with water and painted the goggles. I then dug a cheeky little mouth in with a knife and made a BANANA with leftover yellow fondant.

Think it turned out pretty cute, 

Say Hi to Archie Minion!