Minnie Mouse in the House!

You know how that saying:

Well, I'm so smart, that's exactly what I did!  (Although technically I started with stepkids)

We celebrated my granddaughter's first birthday last weekend.  I can't believe she's one!  She is so adorable.  She's curious and fiercely independent.  She is just so stinkin' cute.

Now, I've always had a policy that I don't make birthday cakes for one year olds.  This happened because my nephew was older than 1 when I started making cakes, so I kind of just made it a rule for all the others.  It's not like they will remember it, right?

But for my granddaughter, I had to make an exception.  Her party was Minnie Mouse themed and her mom asked me to make this beautiful pink outline of Minnie Mouse.

Thank you, Minnie Mouse, for being an easy shape.  

The first thing I made was the fondant hairbow so it could dry and hold it's shape.

I made one 10-inch round cake for the face and two 6-inch round cakes for the ears.  The ten inch was my classic yellow cake with raspberry mousse filling (haha, get it? mouse -- mousse).

The six inch cakes were chocolate with a chocolate fudge mousse and peanut butter chip filling.

One of the biggest challenges of making this cake was finding a cake board that was the right size.  I don't live near a JoAnns or Michaels or Hobby Lobby and Walmart didn't have the size I needed.  So, I improvised.  I bought a foam board from the craft section and my husband cut it into a square for me.  I covered it with silver cake board wrapping and it looked fantastic!

I did a quick crumb coat of the cakes and then began piping (I used tip 1M for those who care).  I had estimated I would need 2 batches of frosting for this cake.  I ended up needing 5 BATCHES.  That's an insane amount of frosting.  Do you know how hard it is to match the color of 5 separate batches?  Honey, I think I do need the professional kitchen aid mixer after all . . . 

The next challenge was to transfer the ears from their cutting boards to the cake board without dropping them or messing up the frosting.  I used some big cake knives and managed to get both of them on the board without mishap!

Then I added the hairbow.

I had planned on piping my granddaughter's name on the cake, but I ran out of frosting.  So I quickly cut out some fondant letters and put them on the cake board.

The cake looked adorable.  Here it is at the party!  And of course, it tasted delicious as always.

Happy birthday, Emryn!  Here's to many more birthday cakes!