Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

First and foremost, I have to admit that this design is NOT my idea. It should be credited to Mimi Gateaux, who is VERY talented! I love her style...you should go over to her page and check it out. I typically find lots of ideas for a cake online, then compile little aspects of each idea into one big idea and make my own thing. However, I was absolutely in LOVE with this cake, so I decided to do it almost exact, give or take a few differences.

On this cake, the clubhouse is made of rice krispie treats and modeling chocolate, and the rest of the cake coverings and decorations are fondant. The characters are not edible...they are little figurines. There was a lot I liked and disliked about this cake, but like I've said before, I'm my worst critic. I disliked working with modeling chocolate. That is partially because I think I used the wrong type of chocolate. I read everywhere that you CAN use Almond Bark for modeling chocolate, but it left me with a greasy mess that still had chocolate chunks in it, even after following Lauren Kitchens' Youtube videos on How to Make Modeling Chocolate and How NOT to Make Modeling Chocolate. She does suggest two other types of chocolate to use, but I had already bought the Almond Bark prior to watching the video, so I didn't go buy more. This is not the first time I've made modeling chocolate. The first time I made it, it was way too sticky and hard to work with. Now that I've watched Lauren's video, I'm curious to see if her instructions will work better for me if I use her suggested chocolate choices. Modeling chocolate is great for smoothing, not to mention it's yummy, so I thought it would work nicely for the rounded and/or circular pieces on this cake. It's nice because if you get a wrinkle and/or crack, you can simply smooth it out with the warmth of your hand. My other problem was that I didn't color enough chocolate for the pieces I made, so the chocolate ended up not being thick enough to get out all the bumps from the rice krispies treats, thus why you don't see a blue slide ;) It did not turn out well...lol.

I also did not care too much for my approach on putting the cake pieces together. The back piece is one 2-layer, 8" cake. The smaller front pieces are 1-layer, 6" cakes. After icing and fondant covering the 6" pieces, I cut them, put them up against the 8" cake, then smoothed green frosting into the cracks where the two cakes came together. Because I kept the cake on a piece of cake board, and not a sturdier bottom, every time I moved the cake in and out of the refrigerator, the frosting where the two cakes met would crack open and I'd have to fill them again. If you look closely at Mimi's cake, I feel certain she used one huge piece of fondant to cover the entire cake. I'm just now getting enough confidence to cover a round cake with fondant, so I didn't want to risk trying to cover 3 different sized cakes at one time. Maybe next time ;)

What I loved about this cake was the design...credited to Mimi of course. It was so much fun to make and put together despite all the stumbling blocks...well, more like "learning experiences" :) But, if I had to pick only one thing that was my absolute favorite, it would be the smile on the little birthday boy's face when he first saw it :) Enough to make any person's day!

See my other cakes at:  StellarCakeArt

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