Minnie Mouse Fondant Cake

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Come inside, it's fun inside
It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.. 

I've been thinking a lot about my childhood memories and of course my school life. I was born in UAE , but brought up half in India and half here. Arabic cartoons which were aired at the evenings were our favourite those days. I loved watching them (as if you didn't ;) ) . We used to pretend to be asleep and slowly jump up the bed once dad goes for his evening shift. That's when the clock struck 4 30 & the great Cheese Chase (Tom & Jerry ) began. We were in primary school, then. But then, we shifted to India and instead of daily shows, we had weekly thats Sunday Disney Hour. Mickey,Minnie, Donald & Daisy were our favourites then. There would be no any child who haven't ever dreamt of the colorful Disney World; atleast once in their lives. A magic world and so so so colorful characters that I always wanted to be a part of it. No wonder why Walt Disney was known as the greatest dreamer of modern time. Not only was he not afraid to dream, he was not afraid to walk those dreams into reality. 

This cake was not a planned one; but happend just like that when my sis planned a sudden visit to our place. Her daughter Mizna always wanted a Donald Duck Cake , but I never had the courage to mould a duck or any other character. That's when I thought of trying Minnie as even if its face don't resemble the character,  those ears would do ;) This was a surprise for her and the other junior chefs and they did enjoy it. She was so happy that she didn't allow me to click a decent picture of it.

Yesterday was the World Autism Awareness Day as declared by United Nations.The UN resolution declares WAAD will bring the world's attention to autism, a pervasive disoreder that affects tens of millions. The WAAD encourages all Memeber states to take measures to raise awareness about autism throughout society and to encourage early diagnosis and intervention.Read more....

This cake is dedicated to all those children suffering from Autism and to salute all those Moms who stood by them .

I did share this recipe before here...  Raspberry & vanilla Macarons Cake

INGREDIENTS  for the strawberry cake

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 tbsp of strawberry puree and a pinch of red color

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 170 C degrees. Butter and flour  8-by-2-inch cake pan, tapping out excess flour. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined.
3. Pour this mix into the prepared pan; smooth tops. Bake until cake pull away from sides of pans, 32 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.

iNGREDIENTS  FOR THE chocolate CAKE

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
• 2  cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
• 1/2 cups Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 tbsp of strawberry puree and a pinch of red color

METHOD IS SAME AS ABOVE.

Take a small pyrex bowl for the clubhouse cake. I mixed the chocolate batter and baked in the pyrex bowl and a cake tin. 

The strawberry cake was a bit taller than chocolate cake; so I trimmed the cake to get equal layers. 

Now for assembling:

Cut three strips of wax paper and place on top of the cake board like you see in the picture. You can pull this baking sheet after frosting so that you don't have to clean the board after frosting.

Place one cake, bottom side up, on a cake stand. Tuck strips of parchment paper underneath. Using an offset-spatula or table knife, spread top with the buttercream icing. Top with remaining cake; frost top, then sides. Cover the cake with fondant.

I didn't layer the clubhouse cake. Just frosted outside. Cover this cake also with fondant.

Wilton's Chocolate Buttercream Icing:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup cocoa 

1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract

4 cups icing sugar

4 tbsp milk

 In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add 3-4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk. bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

Rolling fondants:

I used Dr. Oetkar's ready to roll icing here. Both the cakes are covered with fondants  separately and then decorated. I don't have step by step pictures for rolling out fondants and so here is the link for the detail instructions.

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