Mickey Mouse Cake
Always endlessly and wildly popular – here's how to make your own Mickey Mouse Cake for a crowd!
Servings: 24 people
Calories: 755kcal
Equipment
- 1 6 inch cardboard cake circle (I prefer Wilton's center-punched circles to make stacking the tiers easier!)
- Ruler (to stack tiers evenly)
- 1 Sheet black paper or adhesive-backed craft foam + 2 toothpicks and tape (to make Mickey ears; I used craft foam so it wouldn't warp in the fridge but paper would be cheaper!)
- 1 jar lid (or circle cutter set; to make Mickey ears)
- 1 4-inch craft foam half-sphere (available at craft stores or online)
- 1 Small new or food-safe paintbrush (optional; to make the lines on Mickey's hands)
Ingredients
Mickey Mouse Cake Layers
- 4 7/8 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ cup unsalted butter (or 3 sticks, room temperature)
- 9 eggs
- 2 ¼ cups buttermilk (room temperature)
- 3 teaspoons clear vanilla extract
- 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- 12 ounces cream cheese (1 1/2 packages; softened)
- 1 1/2 cups butter (24 Tablespoons or 3 sticks; softened)
- 9 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoons clear vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
- 4-6 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 4-5 large drops Red gel food coloring (Add now or save and add later if you’d rather fill/crumb-coat with white frosting. I used Americolor Super Red)
Decorations
- 6 ounces Black fondant (for base border / cake topper)
- 4 ounces Yellow fondant (for ‘feet’ decorations and top tier border – this is optional, but I shaped Mickey’s feet with these popsicle molds!)
- 2 ounces White fondant (for buttons and topper; there’s also a combo pack of white/black/yellow fondant available here!)
- 1 small drop brown food coloring (to knead into white fondant for the topper)
- 1 small drop Black gel food coloring (I used Americolor Super black)
- 1-2 Tablespoons large sugar pearl sprinkles (I used red, black, and yellow)
Instructions
Cake layers
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8-inch cake pans and three 6-inch cake pans with baker’s floured cooking spray, or grease and line with parchment rounds.
- Mix together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) in a stand mixer with a paddle until fully combined. Mix bits of room-temperature butter slowly into the dry mix, on a low speed. Continue to mix until no large chunks of butter remain, and the mixture looks crumbly.
- Pour in eggs and mix on low until just incorporated. Mix in the buttermilk in two parts on a low speed. Add in vanilla and oil, and mix on low until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds.
- Divide batter between prepared cake pans (I used a kitchen scale for this part!) Pour about 300 grams into each of the 6-inch pans. Divide the rest of the batter into the remaining pans – I ended up with about 675g in my large pans. The kitchen scale guarantees your layers will bake to be the same height.
- Bake for 35-37 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Allow cake layers to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans – it helps to run an offset spatula or knife around the perimeter of the pan first. Cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.
- Once the layers have fully cooled, they can be leveled and any caramelized bits can be trimmed from the sides / top of the cake using a serrated knife if desired. Be sure the layers are completely cooled or chilled before trimming. If you try to trim the layers while they’re still warm, they will crumble apart.
- While you’re waiting…make your frosting and/or prep your decorations!
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with whipping cream until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla and salt and beat until well combined.
- If you’d rather use less gel color, you can fill/crumb-coat your cake layers in white frosting and make just your outer layer red. If you’d rather use red frosting, add your gel color now!
Mickey Mouse Topper
- Cover your sphere in black fondant, using a bit of corn syrup to help it stick if needed. Cut an ‘M’ shape out of tan fondant and two ovals out of white / two smaller ovals out of black fondant (I recommend giving the video a quick watch for this part; it's less than a minute long!)
- Roll a small black (slightly oblong) ball for the nose.
- With a circle cutter or jar lid, cut 4 craft foam or paper circles (or 2 if you don't mind the toothpick showing on the back). Adhere a toothpick halfway onto each of 2 circles, and with the backing adherent (or tape), press 2 circles together to form ears. (Set aside; I added the ears once the sphere was on the cake.)
- I free-handed the gloves on paper and traced them, but there are plenty of templates available online! I opted to paint the little lines on at the end so I didn’t smear them in the transfer.
Assembly
- Place a smear of frosting on your large cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your large first cake layer in the center of the circle.
- Spread the layer with frosting, and add your next cake layer on top. Repeat the process with your remaining cake layers.
- Next, repeat the same process with your smaller cardboard circle and cake layers. Of note – if your circles aren’t pre-center-punched, be sure to grab a dowel or straw and make your own hole in the exact center of the circle! This will allow you to center the tier on the base tier later on.
- Now you're ready to crumb-coat. If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like – spreading a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake to keep crumbs out of your final layer.
- Once your crumb coats have set (this takes about 5-10 minutes in the fridge), add your final layers of frosting and smooth. I like to use an offset spatula and bench scraper for this part. For my larger tier, I was able to smooth the frosting fairly well free-handed, but I struggled getting the sides smooth on my smaller one. Trimming my smaller cake layers slightly smaller than my cake circle and using the cardboard as a guide worked well!
- Place both tiers into the fridge to set the frosting – this makes stacking easier!
Okaaaay. The stacking process!
- I watched a few tutorials before I made my first tiered cake, and ‘How to Make a Tiered Cake’ by Chelsweets was my favorite. Basically, doweling a tiered cake is done to ensure that the top tier doesn’t crush the lower tier, as well as keeping it centered.
- I used four shorter cut-to-height plastic straws for my base tier dowels, and one taller one cut at an angle in the center to hold my top tier in place.
- Grab your ruler for this next part! To center a 6-inch cake on top of an 8-inch cake, place dowels into the base tier just over one inch from the cake edge, placing them evenly at quarter intervals around the cake.
- Place your last, tallest straw or dowel into the exact center of the cake, making sure to keep it straight up as you press down. Now center the hole in the bottom of your top tier cake circle over the tallest dowel and let the top tier gently down onto the base tier. The dowel will poke into the center of the top tier to hold it in place.
- Pat yourself on the back; you did it! I used a fondant border (cut with my ruler) to hide the tiny bit of cake circle that showed at the base.
Decorating
- Cut two small white circles, and press small ‘buttonholes’ into the circles with a butter knife, and press them onto the side of the top tier.
- Roll out your red, yellow, and black fondant with a rolling pin and a bit of cornstarch if needed (to about 1/8" thick).
- Cut a ½” yellow fondant strip (I used a ruler as a guide) and a ½” black fondant strip and wrap the yellow around the top and black around the base tier – this may be easier to do in 2 strips than 1 super-long one.
- Add black, red, and yellow sugar pearls around the bottom tier of the cake – (alternatively, you could use these to replace the fondant strips around the tier bases!)
- Place your cake topper on top of the cake, and add three small lines to each of Mickey’s hands –
- Annnd you’re done! Congratulations!!
Video
Notes
Please note nutrition information is an estimate and may not be exactly accurate. Also please note nutrition information also does not include fondant decorations (because decorator fondant really doesn’t taste good)!
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice (1/16th base or 1/8th top) | Calories: 755kcal | Carbohydrates: 98g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 37g
Did you make this Mickey Mouse Cake?
Let me know how it went – or find me on Pinterest or on Instagram and tag @IntensiveCakeUnit in your photo!
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