How to Make a Despicable Me Minions Birthday Cake

Step 1: Prepare your tools and ingredients

Every homegrown baker knows that preparing is one of the most important steps in a successful sweet treat. And when the stakes are as high as a Minions cake, you can’t afford to go wrong this early on. 

Start by gathering your containers: four sandwich baking tins and a domed bowl of your choice (ideally the same width as the tins!). Grease and line each of these with greaseproof paper, and turn the oven to 180 degrees so that it can start to pre-heat. 

Then, gather your cake ingredients. We opted for a madeira cake, as it holds its form much better than your average sponge and is easier to cut and shape. For this, you’ll need:

• 700g butter
• 700g caster sugar
• 700g self raising flour
• 350g plain flour
• 12 eggs
• Zest and juice of 1.5 lemons

With this quantity, you’ll end up with a Minion birthday cake that’s around one foot tall.

Step 2: Mix everything together

It’s time to mix everything together that will form the body of your Minions cake. Start by mixing together the butter, sugar, lemon juice, and zest. Then gradually beat in the eggs and continue to mix so that you have a smooth texture to pour into your baking tins. 

You now need to sift in the flour before pouring the combined mixture into your prepared baking tins and domed bowl. This is all now ready to go into the pre-heated oven, and you’ll know it’s ready when you can stick a skewer into the mix and it comes out clean. For each baking receptacle, this’ll be: 

Step 3: Assemble your masterpiece

You’re in the final stages now. Soon, your Minions birthday cake will be ready to wow the kids (and probably their parents, too!). 

Once you’ve allowed your cakes to cool from the oven, stack them on top of each other, placing the domed piece at the top. You should then trim the sides of each layer so that they’re flush all the way down. 

You should now use vanilla-flavoured buttercream (pre-made from the shop is fine!) to stick your cakes together, and ice around the edges. This gives your fondant something to stick to, and makes sure the layers won’t slide around when adding your finishing touches.

Step 4: Bring the Minion to life

Now comes the hardest part: turning your domed cake into a realistic yellow Minion that Gru would be proud of. 

For this, you’ll want blue, yellow, white, and black fondant. This gives you plenty of colours to work with while covering the cake, designing the Minion’s denim dungarees, attaching its huge eyeball, and adding details like a mouth and hands. 

When rolling out your fondant, make sure to use cornflour instead of icing sugar. It’s much less gritty, and can be easily brushed away when finishing up your design.

Step 5: Tuck in!

Congratulations! You’ve just baked an excellent Minions birthday cake that will surely impress all of your guests. 

We hope you found this tutorial helpful, and we’d love to see your creations. Send your photos to hello@dnakids.co.uk, or send them to us on Facebook or Instagram and we’ll share the best ones we receive!