This adorable Minnie Mouse cake is super easy to make and the perfect party centerpiece! This one-layer Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake is big enough to feed a crowd and leaves plenty of room to write a sweet message for your favorite little Minnie fan!
How to Throw a Minnie Mouse Birthday Party (without Breaking the Bank)
When my middle daughter was two years old, we threw her a Minnie Mouse Birthday Party to celebrate. She’s always been a Disney fan and in her toddler years especially, she was obsessed with all things Minnie Mouse!
This post was originally published in May 2016, but I love this Minnie Mouse Cake and wanted to add a video to the post. So we’ve updated as of April 2019 with new photos and video tutorial.
I had two goals for this Minnie Mouse birthday party:
1- Everyone have fun! (Kids AND adults!)
2- Not spend a ton of money (birthdays can get very pricey if you’re not careful!)
I was astonished when I saw how much my mother-in-law spent on a “simple” birthday cake for our oldest daughter’s party last year, so this time I decided the DIY approach would be friendlier on the budget.
Plus I really enjoyed baking and decorating the cake and I was so happy with the results! I’m not known for my talents in the kitchen, so if I could make this cake, then trust me…it’s easy!!
Minnie Mouse Cake Ingredients
I’ve included shop-able ad links for your convenience in re-creating this recipe; disclosure policy available here.
- Chocolate cake mix — While you can absolutely make your Minnie Mouse cake from scratch, we used box cake mix to save time. You’ll need two boxes of mix.
- Dark chocolate frosting — Again, pre-made frosting is an awesome time-saver! (Grab two cans of frosting!)
- White frosting — This is what we used to make Minnie’s bow and write a birthday message on the cake. One can should be plenty.
- Red gel food coloring — We use red food coloring to mix up some pink frosting for Minnie’s bow.
Kitchen Supplies Used:
- 10″ round pan & 6″ round cake pans — You could also use a 9″ and 5″, etc. The most important thing is to have one large cake pan for Minnie’s head and two smaller round cake pans for the Minnie ears.
- Frosting decorating bag — We love these reusable silicone piping bags because you can wash and use them over and over again. A fine tip is best for writing and to make each white polka dot.
How Many Does this Minnie Mouse Cake Serve?
If you’re wondering about how many this Minnie Mouse cake serves, it is a BIG cake — more than enough for all of our 25-30 guests!
We used two box cake mixes and two cans of frosting (plus about half of a can of white frosting for writing and decorating).
If you want to make a smaller cake, you could use one box of cake mix and one can of frosting – you would just want to use smaller cake pans than we used.
How to Bake a Minnie Mouse Cake
This Minnie Mouse cake is especially easy because we used a box mix. You can make your favorite flavor: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry — anything works because the dark chocolate frosting covers it.
If you prefer a from-scratch cake recipe, our Toll House Cake recipe is a buttery yellow cake with chocolate chips and it’s gluten free too!
TIP: If you don’t have 2 small pans, bake in shifts, reusing the 6″ pan instead of buying two of them.
Allow cakes to cool completely before trimming the tops. You want all three cakes to be even in height. Use a serrated knife or our foolproof cake-cutting method here. DO NOT throw away the excess cake, as you’ll use it in a minute.
Arrange your cakes: the large cake will be the head and the two smaller cakes make the ears. Frost all of them with dark chocolate frosting.
Remember those extra cake scraps leftover from trimming your cakes? Use these to create Minnie’s bow on top of the big cake.
Once you’ve got the right shape for the bow, cover it in pink frosting.
Finally, scoop the rest of your white frosting into a decorating bag and pipe polka dots onto your pink bow. You can also write a birthday message on the middle of the cake.
Isn’t this Minnie Mouse cake just the cutest?!
How to Make Minnie Mouse Ears Stand Up on Cake
Since we made our Minnie Mouse birthday cake for a party where we invited quite a few family and friends, we wanted our cake design to be functional.
A cake with ears that stand up would be fragile, and might not make it until party time.
I love how our Minnie Mouse birthday cake turned out and all of our guests immediately recognized those trademark Minnie ears and the white polka dot bow!
It’s one of my favorite birthday cake ideas we’ve ever made!
Bonus Party Idea: Easy Minnie Mouse Goodie Bags
I didn’t want to waste a lot of time on fancy goodie bags, since kids just rip into them, but I still wanted them to be festive and match the theme.
I simply bought pink paper bags (they were $2 for a pack of 12 when I bought them…score!) and cut circles out of black construction paper to make “ears.”
What’s inside our goodie bags:
We had both boys and girls at the party, so I tried to find things that would be fun for everyone. I also tried to find things they could actually play with instead of junky favors.
Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake Recipe:
If you like this recipe, rate it! We’d also love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
How to Make a Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake (Video!)
Ingredients
- 2 boxes chocolate cake mix
- 4 cups chocolate frosting
- 1 cup white frosting
- Red gel food coloring
Instructions
- Prepare cake batter according to directions on box. Bake in 1 large round and 2 small round pans.
- After cakes have completely cooled, trim the tops of the three cakes so they will be even in height.
- Arrange in the shape of the head and ears. Coat cake with dark chocolate frosting.
- Use cake scraps that you trimmed from the tops of your cakes to create a bow shape.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine 1/2 can of white frosting with a few drops of red food coloring. Stir and add more coloring as necessary to get a nice shade of pink.
- Frost your bow with the pink frosting,
- Use remaining white frosting to make polka dots on the bow and decorate your cake.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Pin Our Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake on Pinterest
Other ways we kept costs low at our Minnie Mouse Birthday Party:
- My husband cooked all of the food and chose a menu that was inexpensive and could be bought in bulk: Mexican rice, carne guisada (click here for recipe), shredded marinated chicken, and taco fixings. It was self-serve so everyone could take as much as they wanted and we had plenty leftover so our guests could make to-go plates too!
- For entertainment for the kids, we had a bouncy house — we found a friend of a friend who rented them out so we were able to get a deal. Always ask around if you’re looking for big-ticket items to find better prices or discounts.
- For the adults, we made a festive tropical rum punch instead of serving individual drinks like bottled beer. For about $20 we had enough punch to serve 20 people…can’t beat that! This also allowed us to make a punch that tasted amazing and be able to keep an eye on the amount of alcohol served. (Always enjoy responsibly and have a designated driver!)
- The gorgeous (and gigantic!) piñata was a gift from Grandma, but you could make your own to save money.
- We encouraged guests to dress up, but also let them know that kids were welcome to wear the costume of their favorite character, even if it wasn’t Minnie-related. That way no one had to go buy anything just for this party (including us!) My oldest daughter wore her favorite Elsa-inspired dress (we have more than gotten our money’s worth on that one!) and the birthday girl wore a Minnie Mouse costume we were provided for a recent Disney sponsored post (how fortunate was that?!)
This was one of the best parties we’ve ever hosted (in my humble opinion) because everyone had a blast, stayed for hours, and left with happy tummies! Plus, there was no crying, which is a big indicator of success at a kid’s birthday party!
The birthday girl with her Grandpa, who won the unofficial award for best dressed grown-up in his pirate costume:
More of our favorite birthday party success tips:
Time Saving Kids Birthday Party Hacks
What Really Happens at a Chuck E. Cheese’s Birthday Party
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Gabrielle says
Hello I have eight inch round cake pans. What size pans wood you suggest for the ears? Looking forward to making this for my 4-year-old!!
Stacey aka the Soccer Mom says
I think mine were either 4 or 5 inch rounds, but it doesn’t have to be exact!