Mickey Mouse Cake {Chocolate Zucchini Cake}

Levi loves Mickey Mouse! He requested to have a Mickey Mouse birthday party so of course I needed to make a Mickey Mouse cake! Everything I found on the Internet was too complicated or fancy for me. I like to keep things simple but nice. So I did my own thing and it was perfect. And the best part was it didn't take me all day and Levi loved it! 

You can make this using any type of cake but for sure you'd want a chocolate frosting. I made my yummy Chocolate Zucchini Cake with chocolate frosting that I slightly colored black.  The zucchini makes the cake super moist and no one even notices it's in there. I've had this recipe for years but haven't shared it yet so I will include the recipe below.

First you need a large cake pan and 2 small cake pans. I used a 10" and two 6" pans but if I were to do it again I would use a 9" pan. If you don' t have a small cake pan you can just use a bigger pan (like the standard 8") and cut out the circles. 

Next preheat your oven and make your cake.  To make sure the cake doesn't stick, take parchment paper and trace the bottom of each pan then cut out the circles. Next lightly spray the bottom of the cake pans with non-stick cooking spray then press in the parchment circles then spray the pan again making sure to cover the sides. Fill pans with cake batter and bake until done. Remove from oven and let cool completely. 


While cake is baking make the frosting. If desired add a little black food coloring. I just added a little and by the time I was done frosting the cake the color had deepened and it looked black.

If the top of the cake is uneven, gently cut the top of the cake off using a serrated knife.  Run a butter knife around the edges of the cake and gently remove.  For the ears I slightly cut into the 2 small cakes to have it fit nicely into the big circle.  You can put frosting in between if you want but I didn't and it was fine.

Next step is to frost the cake!  I was a little nervous to do this since I haven't done this much so I watched a couple YouTube videos which really helped me. The biggest tip was when you first start to frost the cake put a good amount of frosting on your spatula (or whatever you are using) and place that on the cake and gently start frosting. Then the key is after that to not let the spatula directly touch the cake again just the frosting. That way you don't get crumbs in your frosting. It was amazing how good it worked!

Next step is to write on the cake. First chill the cake for about 10 minutes.  This way if you make a mistake while writing on the cake it will easily come off and you can redo it. While the cake is chilling make a little buttercream frosting for the writing. The recipe for this is on the very bottom of this post.

And there you have it!  A cute and fun Mickey cake!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

½ cup cocoa

¾ cup oil

¾ cup milk

3 eggs

2 ½ cups flour

1 t. salt 

1 t. baking soda

¼ t. baking powder

2 cups zucchini, shredded 

1 t. vanilla
 

Directions:

Cream together sugar, cocoa, oil, milk, and eggs.  Add dry ingredients, stir until well-mixed.  Fold in zucchini and vanilla.  *Bake in a 9x13 pan at 350˚ for 30-40 minutes.  Frost when cool. 


*If you use this recipe for the Mickey cake just distribute the batter among the 3 round cake pans.  The 2 smaller round cakes will bake faster than the big cake pan so keep your eye on it.

Chocolate Frosting: 

6 Tbsp. butter 

4 Tbsp. milk

1/4 cup +2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

½ cup chocolate chips

5 cups powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla
 

Melt butter, milk, cocoa and chocolate chips in microwave (about 1 minute).  Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix in powdered sugar until smooth; add vanilla. If too thick add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Buttercream Frosting for Writing on Cake
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk


Cream the butter with the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar slowly then add the milk and beat for about 1 minute. If needed add more milk 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.