Minions Cake Recipe

When Maisie turned one, I for some reason decided to make a Peppa Pig cake to celebrate. I'm not quite sure why, given that I don't think she would have cared either way if I had just bought one from the supermarket as opposed to spending hours on getting her snout "just right". Since then, I've always gone for homemade novelty cakes. It's a tradition now, I suppose, although in the middle of making a cake I always swear that next year, it'll be shop bought. It's always worth it in the end though. Some turn out better than others but either way, the kids always love them and it's good fun trying to come up with ideas and designs.

This year, George became obsessed with Despicable Me 1 and 2 so a Minions cake was always going to be a winner for his 3rd birthday. I Googled Minions cakes and there are loads of them out there - both 2D and 3D ones. George decided he wanted a one-eyed Minion so that's what we went with. I looked up some ideas on YouTube and started attempting to follow the directions and designs exactly but I ended up winging it. Here's what I did:

Day 1:

For the first layer, I made a chocolate biscuit cake using the Odlums recipe - it's great as it shows the different quantities for different sized and shaped tins. I leave out the fruit and nuts from the recipe and add a few packets of Malteasers and some chopped up Crunchie bars instead. Some people like marshmallows in it, but I'm not a fan. As for the type of chocolate, don't use cooking chocolate, whatever you do. I use half and half dark and milk. I typically buy it in Lidl as it's much better value than the branded stuff. I used a six inch tin for this but used the 8 inch recipe and really packed the tin right to the top. I always stick the chocolate biscuit cake in the freezer for an hour or so and then transfer into the fridge and let it sit overnight at least. You can prepare this well in  advance though.

Next, I make chocolate ganache. I make this by heating 200ml of cream in a pot on the hob until it starts to show dots on the surface right before it starts to boil. I then pour this over 200g of finely chopped dark chocolate and swirl it around until the chocolate melts, then I stir and make sure there are no lumps, allow to cool and refrigerate overnight.

At this point, I also make a batch of my buttercream. For this cake I made vanilla, but added a couple of dollops of lemon curd. I like Tesco's Finest but I plan on sampling some more locally produced  ones if I spot any around.

Day 2:

Remove the chocolate biscuit cake from the tin and cover with the ganache. It'll probably be really stiff from the fridge so you can make it more spreadable by microwaving for a few seconds but don't overdo it. Cover the top and sides of the cake and make it as even and as smooth as you can as any lumps or bumps will show through the icing. Place it back in the fridge.

This is where pictures of the Minion come in handy. I looked at loads and used them as a guide to make the shoes, buttons for the dungarees, the spikes for the hair and the grey goggles. I bought black ready to use fondant from a specialist baking shop as I find it's really hard to get a dark enough black if you dye it yourself. For the rest, I just bought the white fondant and dyed the colours myself using the gel - not the liquid - food colouring. This can be time consuming and messy to get right so you could also buy pre-dyed packets. Put the little shoes, goggles  etc in a cardboard box like a shoebox and keep in a dry place - not the fridge. They'll keep well and harden for when you need them.

Day 3:

For the next part of the cake, the Minion's head, I used a Pyrex dish, also six inches, and made a sponge cake using this recipe, but I'm sure your own sponge recipe will work just as well. Don't fill the entire bowl with cake mix as it will rise and overflow if you do. (I had some cake mix left over so I  put them in some bun cases and made a few little buns to go with the cake and I iced them with leftover ganache and buttercream.) Make sure you grease the Pyrex dish well with butter to make sure the cake doesn't stick. Cool the cake down fully and then use a sharp knife to cut it on half across the middle so that you can put some buttercream and jam in there. I used raspberry jam and heated it in the microwave first before putting it through a sieve to remove the seeds. Sandwich the cake back together and then cover with a light layer of buttercream - this is called the crumb coat as it catches all the crumbs. I pop in freezer for 15 minutes and then add another coat of buttercream so that it's nice and smooth with no crumbs visible. Pop the cake in the fridge.

Day 4:

A really handy piece of equipment here is a turntable - I find it makes it a lot easier to cover the cake properly if you have one. If not, don't worry - just place the covered chocolate biscuit cake on a cake board and top it with the head. Cover with yellow fondant.  Watch a few YouTube videos if you're not sure of the technique but you basically roll out enough fondant to cover the entire cake, then use your rolling pin to drape it over and you can use your hands to rub it down then. Smooth any kinks or air bubbles out with an icing smoother, which kind of looks like something you'd use for plastering a house. I got mine for a few euro in my local shop, Tom Sheehy's, which has loads of great baking equipment and the ready-to-roll fondant as well.

Next, I cut out the dungarees and stuck them on by using a brush and painting the back with some water and holding it against the cake for a few seconds to make sure it stuck. Again, I used pictures as a guide and just drew out a template and worked from that. I used edible glue to stick on the buttons and the goggle and for the eye, I gave it a 3D look by layering the black, brown and white circles on top of one another. I cut out a yellow eyelid to complete the look. Next I added a little pocket to the dungarees and used a butter knife to give it the stitching detail and to make the indentation of his mouth. I shaped out a little pink tongue and just made very basic arms and legs and the string for the goggles. I used tooth picks to pierce holes in the head so I could stick in the hair.

The next time I make a cake I must take note of how I do it and take photos and videos of each stage in case anyone wants to see. But that's the best I can do for the Minions cake - it's not perfect by any means! If anyone has any questions feel free to post in the comments section and I'll do my best to answer. And if anyone makes one of these bad boys, please post a pic on the Facebook page!