Despicable Me Minion Birthday Cake

Your nephew turning 4 only happens once! So of course I had to make him an awesome birthday cake that he'd always remember. I happen to love minions too, so I knew this was going to be a fun cake to make!

Deciding to make a minion cake was the easy part. What exactly that was going to entail was more of a work-in-progress. What would the color scheme be? How many minions should I make or how many will fit on the cake without it looking crowded? What should each minion be doing? I obviously didn't want the cake to be too plain, but I didn't want any of the designs to distract from the minions because they were the focus of the cake. Ultimately, I thought that various sized blue and yellow dots around the sides of the cake would be the best complement.

To make things a little easier (especially since the cake had to be ready on a Saturday morning), I made the minions in advance, because if you store them properly they don't go bad, they just might be a little dry. I opted to use the premade fondant this time because right now it's more about learning to work with fondant and getting better at making designs. So I thought it would be best to save myself all the extra time and work to make my own fondant, especially since I don't have that time to spare right now.

I found a tutorial on Pinterest (of which there are many) for making a minion out of fondant. For the eyes, I used candy eyes that I had bought in the cake decorating section of the grocery store, but I turned them around so that the back side was facing outwards. I did this so that the eyes would look flat (because the minions wear goggles, so they look flat) and so that I could put the pupils on myself, and therefore decide which direction the minions' eyes would look (for example, at the little slice of cake).

Fondant minion (in progress)

I can say for certain that making the minions got a lot easier each time I made another one. I was able to get somewhat of a "system" down to make the process go a lot faster too. The hardest part was attaching all of the pieces (clothes, arms, eyes, etc.) and trying not to squish or distort the body while doing so. The biggest part of it is patience because it does take time, and I think the only reason I'm able to be patient is because it's something I love to do. It definitely doesn't mean that I don't get frustrated from time to time though.



Fondant minions and fondant bananas

Fondant minion eyeing a slice of cake

Fondant minion in party hat

My favorite color on the cake was definitely the one for the borders. The picture (see below) doesn't quite do it justice but it's a really neat gray/blue. I was a little worried because I hadn't made that color before and couldn't seem to find anything online about which gel colors to use, but it made sense to me to use black (which would make gray) and the royal blue (because the sky blue would be too light). So that's what I did, and I lucked out and eventually got it to the exact color I had in mind. I will absolutely use that one again.

I wasn't quite sure how orange letters would look on top of the blue, but I decided to go for it because I really wanted them to stand out, and I wanted to pick something less obvious than yellow. Note: It helps to trace the message on the cake with a toothpick ahead of time, so you can get the size and proportions exactly the way you want them. That way if you mess up you can just smooth the frosting over and write it again.

 I didn't put the fondant pieces on the cake until shortly before we were ready to eat it because I didn't want any of the pieces falling over in transit, or the moisture from the frosting causing the colors in the fondant to bleed. I brought some frosting with me in case any of the hair pieces fell off because they were so fragile I assumed it was inevitable. Surprisingly, the hair stayed put. However, one of the arms broke in half so I did use the frosting to reattach that. You just never know when you're going to have to do some reconstructive surgery.



Finished Despicable Me Minion Cake

In the end this cake was definitely the most intricate and labor-intensive of any that I've made so far, but it was also the most fun. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the look on Wyatt's face when he saw the cake!  It was too cute when he decided he wanted to eat all the little bananas (which I must say were also really fun to make). Everyone said it looked amazing. It was a little funny though when my grandma and sister didn't even want to cut into it because they thought it was too pretty. I'm making another cake this weekend that I think could end up being even more difficult (I won't say too much yet), but hopefully that one turns out just as well!