Crissa's Cake Corner!: Mickey Macarons, Cookies, Marshmallow Pops, Cupcakes & Cake

Yay another Mickey Mouse party! Even with all the new cartoon characters coming out, Mickey is just one of those that never goes out of style! But the thing that first comes to mind when someone wants a Mickey party is the amount food colouring that will go into the food....lots and lots of food colouring is required to get things a true black or a vibrant red. Yipes!

Mickey Mouse dessert table!*

So to start with, Mickey macarons! I used a combination of black food powder and Wilton black food gel to get this deep black macaron batter. Don't ask how much. I just know it was a lot in order to get it really really black...I printed a Mickey Mouse template and used that as a guide to pipe the macarons shaped like Mickey's iconic head.

really black meringue!

Mickey Macaron template from dealsfrommsdo

I discovered that you have to pipe the ears away from the main face and just let the ears spread by themselves (eventually it'll join to the face). Cuz if you pipe with the ears stuck to the head right off the bat, once the batter settles, the macarons end up looking more like bears than Mickey Mouse.

rest for 20 mins before baking

For my first time making these, I think they turned out pretty well! I was concerned that the amount of food colouring would affect the outcome, since macarons are such finicky cookies, but they rose nicely, with even feet and crack-free shells. Hooray.

fresh outta the oven

Mickey's "feet"

The macarons are filled with dark chocolate ganache, made with a 2:1 ratio, by weight, of chocolate to whipping cream.

dark chocolate ganache filling

filled and sandwiched Mickey macarons

To finish the macarons, I cut out half-circles out of red fondant and stuck it to the macaron using a teeny bit of water. I used white confetti sprinkles for the buttons, attaching it with a little dab of royal icing.

finally has his shorts on

The Mickey sugar cookies were made in the same way as these cookies, decorated with black and red fondant and white confetti sprinkles for the buttons.

Mickey & number 1 sugar cookies*

The number 1 cookies were made in the same way as these cookies for this elephant party, except using red fondant instead of pink. I used more dots this time around, cutting them out with the end of a number 12 round piping tip.

filling in the dots for these number 1 cookies

The cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes, frosted with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, dyed red using Sugarflair Super Red. The ears are mini Oreos and the buttons are Reese's pieces. I was at the candy store thinking about how many bags of m&m's I'd have to buy in order to get enough yellow candies when I looked up and saw the big bag of Reese's on sale! Since there are only three colours in the bag, I'd definitely get way more yellow pieces! Hooray!

picked out all the yellow ones for Mickey's buttons

Mickey cupcake army

don't have to worry about the "m's" facing outwards ;)

The marshmallow pops were chocolate covered, with white confetti sprinkles for the buttons. A little trick on how to get the marshmallow pops onto the lollipop sticks without squishing them out of shape, is to rub a little bit of shortening on the end of the stick. That way, the marshmallow easily slides right on.

slide marshmallows on sticks easily using a little shortening

The marshmallow pops are double-dipped, first in dark chocolate (dyed black with powdered food colouring), and then in white chocolate (dyed red with powdered food colouring). It is important to let the dark chocolate layer completely dry before dipping it in the red chocolate or else you won't get a nice, clean distinction between the two colours.

double-dipped Mickey marshmallow pops

Stick the yellow confetti sprinkle buttons on with a dab of melted red chocolate and your Mickey marshmallow pops are done! To display, make a simple pop stand out of a 10" styrofoam round, with the a strip of red poster paper running around the edge.

Mickey colours on this cake

And finally, the cake. The top tier is red velvet cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream filling. The bottom tier is vanilla butter cake, with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream filling. The cake follows the red-black-yellow Mickey colour scheme, and is decorated with fondant circle cut-outs and silhouettes of Mickey's head. The yellow shoes are made out of cereal treats, covered in buttercream and then wrapped in yellow fondant.

cake with Mickey "feet"

All these Mickey desserts went on a Mouse-tastic Mickey Mouse dessert table, styled by the talented Sugarena. I love Sugarena's style, with everything neatly laid out on the table at different heights so it doesn't look boring. The table has a nice symmetry going on, with just the right amount of negative space to keep it from looking too crowded. My fave things on the table are the custom-made foam Mickey head, personalised with the birthday boy's name, complete with Mickey glove cut-outs, and the fancy black candle stick stand holding up the marshmallow pops! Did you notice that the white buttons on the marshmallow pop stand are actual buttons?? Love that little detail added by Sugarena. Makes it look 3D!