Mickey Mouse Vanilla Chiffon Cake

This cake was created for a very special boy who loves Mickey Mouse. He has a smile that melts hearts and looked absolutely adorable with Mickey ears on his birthday! 

The base of the cake was made from vanilla chiffon cake coloured mostly with beetroot. The mickey mouse head and shoes were made from the same vanilla chiffon cake recipe, but with batter divided into black and yellow in 2:1 ratio baked in a big round mould and 2 smaller bowls.

Recipe for the base vanilla (beetroot) chiffon cake is below:

Vanilla Chiffon Cake (17 cm chiffon tin)
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
39g vegetable oil
36 ml boiled water
5 tsp beetroot powder (dissolved in boiled water above)
6 ml vanilla extract
60g cake flour

4 egg whites
45g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water (with 5 tsp beetroot powder dissolved in it) and vanilla extract.
3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. I further added some red yeast powder/red colouring to adjust the red hue deeper as beet may turn out pink or brown if insufficient.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold the meringue into the red batter 1/3 at a time and gently pour into the chiffon tin from a height. Gently tap tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles.
6. Bake the chiffon tin to 160°C for 15 min then at 150°C for 30 min.
7. Invert the chiffon tin once it removed from oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack.
8. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand. Gently pull the cake from the sides of the tin at each angle and push the removable base up to unmould the sides. To unmould the cake from the base, gently lift up the cake from the base using hands, repeating this at each angle before turning the base over. (Watch The Baking Biatch for an excellent video tutorial on hand unmoulding chiffon cakes).

Freshly unmoulded vanilla (beetroot) chiffon cake!

And then I filled the chiffon hole with mini oreo cookies for a hidden surprise! ^_^

Using the same vanilla chiffon cake recipe, divide the batter 2:1 and add 1.5 tsp charcoal powder (to black) and a dip of yellow colouring (to yellow). I baked the black chiffon cake in a 14 cm round mould and the yellow chiffon cake in 2 smaller bowls with OD 11 cm filled to 2/3 full. The baking conditions for the large round mould was 15 min at 160°C and then 20-25 min at 150°C, and that of the smaller bowls were 15 min at 160°C and then 15 min at 150°C respectively. The remaining black batter was just nice for a small 6-inch tray cake (baked for 15 min at 160°C) from which I cut out the ears later. Unmould all the cakes by hand in a similar manner to the chiffon tin by gently pulling the cake from the moulds and flipping it over. After the cakes were unmoulded, I made 2 small slits into the black cake on top and secured the ears into the slits using melted chocolate. 

Tada! My Mickey mouse... almost!

The finishing touches were made by painting white buttons onto the base vanilla chiffon cake. First make a paint-like paste using a mixture of royal icing and snow powder. Then use a fine brush to apply it on.

Here’s the Mickey mouse cake for the special boy!

And one last note: the oreo cookies will become a little soft after a day with the cake even airtight so make sure to add them in on the actual day itself! This is something I learnt from hindsight :p.

Happy birthday to Kinley!

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

With love,
Susanne