Ombré Ruffled Minnie Mouse Cake

Minnie Mouse seems to be quite a popular choice of theme for many girls' birthdays these days. Even my own daughter, Cayleigh, had a Minnie Mouse cake for school and a Minnie Mouse tea party! Even so, I was still very excited to make this Minnie Mouse cake for baby Saanvi's 1st birthday party. 

Ombré Ruffled Minnie Mouse Cake

Both cake tiers were the ever-popular Devil's Food Cake, filled with whipped dark chocolate ganache and chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. The Minnie ears and the fondant bow have to made in advance so that they can fully dry so that they're hard enough to stand up. The Minnie ears have wooden skewers running through them for support. Make sure you insert these into the fondant right after you cut out the circles because they will be impossible to stick in once the ears are dry, without cracking the ears in half. 

Minnie Mouse ears & bow

Minnie's bow is made by cutting a thick rectangular strip of fondant, folding back each of the ends until they touch in the middle, and then gently pinching the middle together, making creases as in a real ribbon. Use a little bit of water to secure the ends. Cut a smaller rectangular strip and wrap it around the middle of the ribbon. Use a circle cutter to cut out a bunch of dots and stick all over the bow using a little bit of water. Stuff some scrunched up paper towel in the cavity at the ends of the bow so that they don't dry flat and close up on themselves. Leave everything to dry until it's nice and hard.

pink ombré buttercream ruffles!

The bottom tier of the cake is decorated with ruffles using vanilla crusting buttercream, in ombré-style, with the colour darkening in shades of pink up the cake. The ruffles are piped from the bottom up, using tip no. 104. This time, I went for messy, fluffy ruffles, to match the birthday girl's dress, instead of neat controlled ruffles like in this cake. 

cake all dressed for the party

The cake was assembled at the party venue because it is easier and safer to transport them as separate cakes. Nobody wants a smashed cake before the party starts! Anyway, I loved how this cake turned out! Fluffy and a nice match to the birthday girl's birthday outfit. Saanvi's mummy, Sneha, bought a cute Minnie Mouse birthday candle to place on top of the cake. She did such a great job with the party decor, putting together all the decorations, 1st year milestone "chalkboard" and even the hand-cut Mickey and Minnie goodie bags! Thank you, mummy Sneha, for letting me be part of Saanvi's birthday celebration. Happy 1st birthday, Saanvi!

Saanvi's lovely ruffled dress!*

Minnie with the cake*

Happy 1st Birthday, Saanvi!*
(*photos courtesy of Saanvi's mummy)