A Piece of Cake: Famous Mouse Face

Now, I'm not advocating that you break any trademark laws when you bake cakes but the truth is sometimes most of the time the little ones like to have cartoon character cakes they can recognize.  Thankfully, Wilton makes a host of pans that, if you can wield a pastry bag and a star tip, you're set.  But sometimes, you, or say me, want something a little more interesting, for the love of the challenge.

I made this cake for Jordan or Sydney, can't remember which, several years ago.  Getting the face right in 3-D form from 2-D was the challenge but we liked this little cake. It's a simple sports ball pan chocolate cake on top of a 9-inch round, single layer.  Obviously, this is decorated with a star tip, just not using  a Wilton bas relief-type pan.  The ears were made from thick layers of fondant, dried out for days prior so they'd stand up without crumbling.

Please forgive the photo. It is difficult to see any of the details beyond the face. This photo was taken with a 35mm before digital.  Not only did I have no skill, I had no way of checking my pics before they were printed. This was the best photo I have to work with.

A friend of mine at work saw this and wanted it for her little girl. No one around here does this kind of 3-D work, let alone selling anything in the "famous" category due to trademark laws. I totally understand both their hesitancy to get sued and Kara's desire to have the cake for her child. 

I simply don't have the hands and back to be able to do this kind of work anymore but I can do a bit, enough to help. I'm not encouraging anyone, mind you, to make the famous mouse, I'm just posting some pics of how I have done it, and how I helped Kara out by creating the hardest part, the face, out of fondant so she could recreate the little guy for her little girl at home...

Hopefully, she'll email me pics of the finished product so we can see how it all turns out in the end.

I started with a medium blob of white fondant, worked black food paste in to form a medium blob of black (could have used about half of that), and worked red food paste in to form a small blob of red fondant.  I also Googled some images of the famous mouse to be able to look at to draw and cut out a template:

Next I rolled out and cut out the basic face shape:

By the way, notice my hands? That's why I can't decorate cakes professionally anymore. See how they're starting to swell up across the back?  That was just from working the food paste into the fondant.  By the end of the one and a half hour project, my hands looked like something from a Harry Potter curse and my back ached like nobody's business.  Hours later, my hands are still swelled up and will stay that way for days. 

I'm not whining.  I'm pissed.  It sucks. I miss decorating.

The rest of the project was all about cutting out the shapes and rolling out thin black ropes to be used as drawing "lines".  I layered them on with a little bit of water as glue, dabbing off excess water so they black coloring wouldn't bleed onto the white.  And yes, that is a hairdryer you see in that one pic.  Hey, you use what you have to to make sure your work doesn't end up smearing and bleeding everywhere. I also used that little Pampered Chef paring knife to shape and smooth edges that can't be gotten into with my fingers.

And then at the end of it all, it became this, which Kara will be able to lay over the sports ball cake she's baking herself and frosting with black icing.  The ears will be cut out of black tagboard.  It should turn out pretty close to mine and be a great memory for both Kara and her daughter.

Can you see the famous mouse in this face?

Comments

[Alisha]

You did a great job on the face (both this time and the last) - I'm sure it'll be easy for Kara to make a beautifully memorable cake. I always have loved cake decorating and the sports ball pan is so versatile. My favorite I think I've done is a Deathstar (from Star Wars). Though like this cake, it was black frosting -- what a mess kids make when they eat it!

[sher]

That was fascinating to read. It's too bad you aren't able to do the decorating like you once did. You're so good at it!! I hope you get some pictures of the finished cake. That would make the story complete. You were very nice to do that for Kara. The kids should be thrilled!

[Glenna]

Thank you both very much!