Today I am going to show you how to make a minion cake.

I have had requests for how to make a 3D cake that stands up and other requests for a despicable

me cake, so here is 10 steps to make a 3D standing up minion cake.

STEP ONE: You need to make a template for any 3D cake that you want to make.

So find a character that you want to make, get a picture of them, blow it up bigger in

word or whatever computer program you have and print it out in the size that you want

your cake to be.

And then you can use that as a guide for how big the actual cake is but also how big all

the details on your cake are going to be as well.

STEP TWO: Make your details.

Now fondant details can be made up to a month in advance and left out to dry.

Use the printout that you made of your character to guide you in what size to make them.

If you have never worked with fondant before at the end of this video click on the banner

to go to the howtocookthat channel and there is a fondant basics video and fondant recipe

video or if you are on your phone then at the end of the video just click on howtocookthat

below the video to go to the channel.

To make the pupil of the minion eye roll out some brown fondant and using a piping tip

to cut out a circle.

Roll out some black and cut out a smaller circle and place it in the centre of the eye.

You will notice I am making two even though I only need one, but I like to make spares

of these pieces that I am making ahead just incase one gets broken or dropped on the floor

or something like that.

Take some black gel colour and paint lines around the edges of the eye to make it look

more realistic.

And then take a tiny bit of white and put on the top edge of the black to give that

reflection that makes it look a bit more alive.

To make the goggle you are going to have to find something in your kitchen that is the

right size and then wrap it around in non-stick baking paper.

Roll out some black fondant and wrap that around the bottle and then stand the bottle

upright.

I like to use something to hold the knife in place otherwise it always goes crooked

and then just keep the knife still and turn the bottle around to make a straight edge

at the top and the bottom.

To make the front of the goggle cut out a circle the size of your bottle and then cut

out a smaller circle from the centre of that.

Then take some edible silver luster dust, someone asked me where you get that from.

Cake decorating stores will have all of this sort of thing, if you don't have a cake decorating

store near you then there's heaps of them online, just google it and you will find some.

Then you just get a dry paintbrush dust dip it in your lustre dust and brush it on the

fondant while it's still moist and it will stick and make it look like it is silver.

Using a small round piping gently push some indents to make it look like rivets, if you

don't have a piping tip then you can use a straw just look through your draw and find

anything that is small and round.

Then use the back of a knife to make an indent around the goggle.

Cut out a rounded groove on opposite sides and that's so that the goggle can fit snuggly

onto your minion face and then you want to leave to dry completely.

That will take at least a few days.

If you are in a hurry then you can add tylose powder to your fondant.

That makes it set quicker.

The goggles have two little rods that sit where the strap joins to them so make two

little round snakes of the same length, indent them by rubbing the back of the knife on them

and dust them with silver luster dust and they are done.

Next you want to make the gru symbol for the front pocket,to do that cut out a circle and

then using a sharp knife cut out a square or diamond shape out of that.

Then for the centre roll a small ball of black and squash it into a circle in the middle,

put a little cut it so it looks a bit like a pacman and then roll a snake of black fondant

and put it going across so it kind of looks like a G.

To make your buttons it's pretty simple just roll a ball of black fondant get something

that is a flat circle and press it down to flatten the middle, I am just using the back

of the paintbrush, again just look in your draw find what you've got, the bottom of pencil,

anything like that.

Push it into the middle of the button and then get some blue fondant and roll it into

a super thin snake and then criss cross it over your button using a skewer to push it

in so that it looks like thread going into holes on the button and then leave those to

dry.

Make some thin black snakes for your hair, curl it over and leave it long at the bottom

for poking into the cake.

Make more than you think you'll need in case some snap because they are very thin.

And leave those on a sheet of baking paper to dry as well.

STEP FRAME you need a frame to support your 3D cake.

For this minion we are going to use two thick cake boards one 8cm in diameter and one is

15cm the smaller one is for the bottom where the minion tapers down and the 15cm one is

for the middle of the cake.

Your also going to need two 32cm wooden cake spikes and another four shorter cake spikes.

Place your round cake boards in the centre of the wooden cake board and drill two holes

through both pieces of cardboard and through the base.

The position of the holes is fairly close together becasue they need to be in the place

of where the minion legs are so that we can hide them.

That gives you a frame like this with your two poles and then your two cake boards you

are still need going to need something under that bottom cake board to support the weight

of the cake so that it doesn't just slide down.

So to do that we are going to drill two more holes one in front and one just behind the

ones you've just done.

Insert a stick into those holes and use a pencil to mark the height at the base of the

board and then measure 3cm higher than that and cut them both to that length.

And that allows room for the feet and the legs under that little minion body.

If your drill holes are not super tight fitting on those sticks then you are going to need

to glue those into place.

Put your smaller base board on top and then you are ready for step 4.

You need to bake your CAKES Now for 3D cakes they will always take more cake than you think

they will.

This is a relatively small minion and it took eight cakes.

NUMBER FIVE make your FROSTING You need to put frosting over your cake so it has something

to stick the fondant to, you can use ganache or here I am using buttercream.

All the recipes for the frostings and the cakes are on the website howtocookthat.net

To make the buttercream all you so is add softened butter and icing mixture together,

mix it with a spoon until it's slightly combined.

Then use an electric mixer to whip it up until it's lighter in colour and fluffy, this will

take a few minutes.

The add a little bit of milk to make the frosting the consistency that you want it you will

probably only need about one tablespoon then continue to whip it until it looks pale and

fluffy like this.

6.

ASSEMBLY put you supports into place and your base cake board, cover it in a thin layer

of buttercream and add your first layer of cake, more buttercream and then your next

layer of cake.

Then I want you to take the last two cake spikes, spike one of them down to the cake

board and mark off that level and cut those two sticks to the exact same height.

Poke them both into the cake, add your next cake board on top, more buttercream and the

next layer of cake.

The reason you need this cake board in the centre with the spikes to support it is because

when you are stacking a cake this many cakes on top of each other it gets quite heavy and

the top cakes are just going to squash the bottom cakes and then your cakes going to

go all out of shape.

Add your next layer of buttercream and repeat this until you get to the height of your print

out or template that you have done.

7.

CARVING is carving, now we are making a minion so carvings fairly simple it's domed over

the top and domed in at the bottom.

8.

CRUMB COAT all that means is a super thin coat of your frosting over the entire cake.

And the purpose of this is to capture any of the crumbs in that so that when we do our

next coat we are not getting crumbs through it.

Once you've done your crumb coat place it int eh fridge and let it firm up.

9.

FROSTING Put a layer of frosting over the entire cake using your palette knife to smooth

it off as best as you can.

Then leave it for about 15 minutes (if it is hot where you live put it in the fridge

for that time).

Then using some paper towel place it over the buttercream and gently rub it to smooth

out any little imperfections.

And once you have finished put it back in the fridge

10.

DECORATE We have done all of our preparation work and now we are actually going to decorate

our cake.

Now this little guy has a strap around at eye level so we are going to do our fondant

in two sections and use the strap to hide the join.

Take a skewer and draw a line roughly where that strap level will be.

If you are not sure use the printout that you have made of the minion you are making

and use that as a guide to where it is going to be.

Roll out the fondant and place it over the top of the cake gently smoothing ti down and

then trim it to the level that you drew just before.

Then I like to wrap the baking paper around the cake so I know how big to roll out the

next piece of fondant, roll it out accordingly.

Trim off the top edge nice and straight.

Take two balls of yellow fondant and place them just above where the arm level is going

to be on the cake because they drop down an bit.

Secure them in place with a toothpick (don't worry we will get that out just in just a

minute, nobody is going to eat it).

Wrap your fondant right around like a coat that's on backwards so that the front of it

is all smooth and the join is at the back.

Then gently squeeze the arms and pull out the toothpick as you do.

Now I should have positioned this arm forward immediately so that they didn't dry out before

I wanted to move them so just make sure that you do that just bring them forward and put

them in that postition.

THen wrap the base of your minion body in the blue jeans colour.

Then mold some of your blue colour around each of the support sticks that we have got

there to hide those.

Roll out some more of your blue and cut it to make the overall shape.

If you are not happy just doing it by hand then use the print out that you made as a

guide.

Cut that out of paper and then cut around that using a knife.

Position it onto your cake and smooth it down around the bottom and add some little balls

of blue fondant across the back.

Shorten your arms to the right length, wrap each hand in a strip of black and push into

place.

Here you can see because the fondant had started to dry in the other position we've got creases

on the arms the and it's not totally smooth that is why I told you to bring it forward.

Take another piece of blue fondant shaped just like you did for the back

and put in over the top of the hands so that it looks like the hands are int pocket push

it around under the front and then smooth it out.

Cut two strips of blue and use it to make straps on each side of your overalls going

over where the minions shoulders would be if he had shoulders.

And secure them into place using a button.

If the fondant is not sticking just put a little bit of water on your finger and just

put a tiny bit of water just under where you want it to stick.

Using the end of a skewer make clothing creases so it looks like the overalls are stretching

up to join the button.

Add the front pocket with the gru symbol you made earlier.

Then use your skewer to make little sewing holes around the edges of the pocket and I

made the pocket at the top just stick out a bit so it looked like it actually was a

pocket not just something sewn on.

Also make a pattern around all the edges of your overalls including the straps and down

around where his hands are so it starts to look like fabric rather instead of fondant.