Storybook Favourites #4: Mickey Mouse

This is how I feel when I contemplate yet another Disney offering:

Once again, I'm faced with recreating a character that I didn't like. It's not so much that I mind even that, but the fact that the characters I don't like are the hardest, most complicated ones, and the ones with the most sprinkles – which look gorgeous once they're on, but stick to your fingers like bitches.

Anyway, my Mickey Mouse was a truly gourmet creation, put together from raspberry swirl cake and orange poppyseed cake (when I say “raspberry swirl” I use “raspberry” in its loosest sense. Put it this way – no raspberries were harmed in the baking of this cake).

The cakes were a lot better this time and the cut-out sections were easier to ice than Donald, perhaps because my Canberra kitchen was warmer and the frosting stayed a bit more pliable. Still though, I don't remember my mum cursing and swearing and generally not coping with this book, but my earlier arrogance optimism after managing hickory dickory watch so easily has come back to haunt me.

Mickey Mouse looks like he has a five o'clock shadow, compounded by the random sprinkles around his face like stubble.

Mmm, stubbleicious.

Over to you, Betty. May you have better luck with Minnie!

ETA: Points that my colleagues have raised, validly, are that I haven't mentioned what went wrong, the difficulty level nor time taken.
So, on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being impossibly hard) I would rank Mickey an 8. He took about 2 hours to do (not including the cakes themselves), which was a LONG time to stay awake on a wine-y Sunday evening.
How to improve Mickey/comments on the recipe:
1. Don't use Smarties for his eyes - M&Ms are smaller and darker and would have worked better
2. He needed a minimum of 1.5 quantities of buttercream frosting, not the 1 that the recipe mentioned
3. Next time, I think I would pipe on his mouth with chocolate frosting, because the sprinkles were really hard to contain in the lines I'd traced out and they sort of went all over the kicthen floor.
4. I couldn't find red ribbon anywhere - possibly because Sunday evening isn't the best time to shop for these things. Note to self: shop well in advance to take account of difficult-to-trace materials.
xxMartha

Giant Donald Duck Sucks Giant Donkey Balls

Wow, Betty, your narrative puts me to shame!

I can't say much about my next attempt - Disney was never one of my favourites, and Donald Duck - out of all my not-favourite Disney characters - was never on my excitement radar.

However, we don't get to pick and choose these cakes, so I attempted Mr Duck. As you may guess from the title of this entry, it wasn't entirely successful.

One thing that I did not remember about DD was that his middle name is Fauntleroy - and apparently, he is a VIP member of the Mickey Mouse Club.

Erm. So, yeah. That's my limit...

On to a general comment about the Book though, and that is that the amount of food colouring used to get the vibrant colours in the pictures is obscene. Seriously, I didn't get DD's beak anywhere near as orange as the pics and I used an entire bottle of orange colouring. Scary!

My second comment about the Book is that if nothing else, it is providing me the opportunity to make cake-mix-cakes. These were (and are, actually) a complete no-no in my house when I was growing up, and I think i really missed out.

Yes, they taste like chemicals - but so fluffy and so easy!

Anyway, DD was a special cake for the Big Boss's birthday - I hope it was enjoyed.

The next challenge is Mickey Mouse.

You heard me - M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E... Mickey Mouse!




xxMartha