Carnival Tsum Tsum Cake & Desserts

I really have my hands full, being the mom of 3 crazy monsters (a boy and two girls!), but I can only imagine what life would be like if all three monsters were BOYS. Yes, several of my girlfriends (3, to be exact!) are mums to not one, not two, but THREE boys. One of them was celebrating the 1st birthday of her youngest baby boy, Dayan, and she picked a hot theme - Tsum Tsum! Yes, the super cute characters in this very addicting game have caused me to lose many hours of sleep in hopes of clearing a Mission Bingo card, completing a Daily Challenge, or unlocking a new character in a Premium Box. 

Carnival Tsum Tsum Cake & Desserts

Anyway, my friend wanted just a few desserts since there were only going to be about 30 guests or so at the celebration. Working with One and Only Gallery, we came up with a colourful carnival Tsum Tsum theme and set up our first mini dessert table collaboration. I got to make Tsum Tsum cake, cupcakes, cake pops, marshmallow pops & cookies!

super tall 6-layer rainbow cake!

A couple weeks ago, my friend attended my son's 7th birthday party and got to taste the rainbow fruit cake that I made for him. She loved it and wanted the same cake for her son's birthday! So, I baked up a 6 layer rainbow vanilla cake, filled fresh whipped cream and a different fruit for each rainbow layer: raspberry for red, mango for orange, lychee for yellow, kiwi for green & blueberry for blue! This cake was super tall, at about 6.5 inches!! I was sorely tempted to leave it naked so that everyone could see the rainbow colours. Anyway, it looked like a huge drum by the time I was done frosting it in vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream!!

Rainbow Cupcakes

The cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, in rainbow coloured cupcake cases, with matching rainbow shades of vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream frosting. There's a lot of washing up involved when dyeing buttercream six colours, but the effort is well-worth it!

Tsum Tsum Cake Pops

For the cake pops, I made Pluto, Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Minnie, in their cute Tsum Tsum forms. When making cake pops, I try my best to use chocolate as much as possible rather than fondant, since chocolate tastes much better. Mickey & Minnie's ears are made of modelling chocolate, and the facial details on all the characters are drawn on using chocolate as well! I only used fondant to mould the bows & for Donald's hat. 

marshmallow pops

The marshmallow pops were dipped in melted dark chocolate, and sprinkled with rainbow sprinkles before the chocolate coating fully set. I wanted them to be as colourful as possible, so I used pastel coloured straws instead of regular lollipop sticks, making sure to snip off the pointy end of the straws first. A helpful trick to get the marshmallows onto the straws (or sticks) without squishing them, is to rub a little bit of vegetable shortening on the ends before stabbing them into the marshmallows. 

Tsum Tsum sugar cookies

I also made sugar cookies of ten different Tsum Tsum characters, using mostly fondant to decorate rather than royal icing. I'm especially pleased with how Goofy came out.  

Tsum Tsum carnival mini dessert table

All these cute and colourful Tsum Tsum desserts went on this mini Carnival Tsum Tsum-themed dessert table, styled by One and Only Gallery. I decorated the cake to match the party backdrop, cutting out a 2D circus tent and colourful flag bunting from fondant, with fun, swirly fondant confetti. The birthday boy's name was done in Tsum Tsum-style, with a couple of black lines for "movement".

Tsum Tsum stack 'em!

To save cost, my friend opted to use Tsum Tsum toy toppers instead of handmade sugar figurines. But stacking those toys was tricky!! After nearly half an hour of repeated failures trying to balance those little guys on top of each other in a pyramid (thank goodness I did on the table and not on the cake), I finally had to resort to sticking them together using royal icing, and managed to balance the Tsum Tsum pyramid on top of the cake! 

I actually tried to royal icing down a no. 1 candle on top of Mickey as well, but that was just pushing my luck and I ended up putting the candle beside the stack instead. 

I really love how all the desserts came together! The bright colours and the cute characters really brought the table to life. The kids and adults alike just couldn't wait to bite into the cake pops & cookies!

colourful carnival Tsum Tsum cake & desserts
(pic from Dayan's mummy)

rainbow cupcakes with fun paper toppers

these little cuties in sugar cookie form
(pic from Dayan's mummy)

Carnival Tsum Tsum mini dessert table

Happy 1st Birthday, Dayan!

I still can't believe that the huge cake was nearly finished!! Apparently it was quite challenging cutting the super tall rainbow fruit cake with the plastic disposable cake knife! But I am so glad that my friend and all her guests loved the cake & desserts! The fruit had been ripening for a week and I was afraid they wouldn't be sweet enough, but the sweetness was just right. So happy to have brought Tsumthing cute and colourful to sweeten up little Dayan's big day. Happy 1st birthday, cutie pie!!

6-layer rainbow fruit cake