How’s that for a title?! When I was researching cakes for my daughter’s Mickey Mouse birthday party, I found that most of them required a fancy Wilton pan and/or frosting or fondant chock full of red and black food coloring. Neither of those qualities worked for me because A) I didn’t want to drop $20 on a one-time use pan and 2) ew. Instead, I found a way to make a cute Mickey Mouse Cake without the fancy pan or added food coloring. And, as a bonus, it was both easy and delicious.

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Homemade Mickey Mouse Cake on a cake board sitting on a red tablecloth

How to Make a Mickey Cake

Supplies You Will Need to Make a Homemade Mickey Birthday Cake

You can see how nicely the proportions of the standard round cake pan and the dollar store pans work together to make the classic Mickey Mouse silhouette. Dollar Tree sells the foil pans 4/$1 so I doubled them up to make them more sturdy. You can also find them at the grocery store or online for slightly more if your dollar store doesn’t have them in stock.

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flat lay of craft supplies on a white table

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Improving the Taste of Boxed Cake Mixes

container of chocolate Greek yogurt in front of a KitchenAid mixer

I used a Pinterest trick to make baking the cake even easier. Instead of following the directions on the cake mix package, I just added 1 cup of water and 6 ounces of Greek yogurt to the mix. I used Chobani’s Vanilla Chocolate Chunk, but plain Greek yogurt would work too.

The trick definitely made the baking process super quick, but I am not sure if I am sold on it or not. I used the absolute cheapest chocolate cake mix I could find, and I think that might have screwed up the texture of the cake. It was not as light as I would have liked. I will try the Greek yogurt trick with a less cheapskate mix and let you know how it turns out.

Baking and Assembling a Mickey Mouse Cake

cake batter in three round cake pans in the shape of a Mickey head

I mixed up a double batch of the batter to make the cakes and the We’ve Got Ears cupcakes. I poured the batter into the pans, trying to keep the depth of the batter even among the three pans.

three circular cakes in the shape of a Mickey head

I baked the cakes at 350 for 32 minutes, and they were perfectly done.

Ooh! The marks left by the foil pans would make perfect guidelines for truck wheels! ((Filing away for the future))

How Do You “Frost” the Mickey Cake?

closeup of chocolate ganache on Mickey cake

I cut each cake into two layers, smooshed chocolate Bettercreme frosting down, and restacked them. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, I decided to replace the typical icky black frosting with… wait for it… CHOCOLATE GANACHE! Ganache is so easy to make and tastes SO much better than standard frosting or black fondant.

Be sure to add any additional non-frosting decorations, like sprinkles or jimmies, before the ganache has completely cooled. Once the ganache hardens to room temperature, it is nearly impossible to get them to stick.

I think the cake turned out especially well, and there was no need for a special cake pan or gobs of colored frosting.

Mickey Mouse Cake Recipes

Pirate Message in Bottle Card — Invitation or Valentine

Easy Mickey Mouse Birthday Cake

Print Pin

Ingredients

Chocolate cake mix
6 ounces of Greek yogurt
1 cup water
3/4 cup heavy cream
9 squares semi-sweet baker’s chocolate

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together until blended.
Pour into one 8 inch round pan and two 4 inch round pans, all greased.
Bake at 350 for 32 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Flip out of the pans, cool and frost.
Coarsely chop the chocolate and put in a small bowl.
In a small saucepan, bring the cream JUST to a boil.
Pour the cream over the chocolate and whisk until melted.
Pour the ganache over the cakes until it just cascades over the sides. The ganache will harden as it cools.

I hope you using this tasty technique to make an easy Mickey Mouse cake. If you make one, please post a picture on Instagram and tag me so that I can see it! That would make my day!

You might like these other Mickey DIYs:

DIY IRIDESCENT MICKEY MOUSE SHIRT

NO-SEW DISNEY LANYARDS

How to Make a Mickey Cake without a Fancy Pan or Food Colored Frosting

How to Make a Mickey Cake