Minion Sheet Cake

Call me a kid at heart, but even at my age I love the Despicable Me movies. They are undeniably cute, outrageously funny and the characters are absolutely charming. Especially the minions! Unpredictable and mischievous, they’ll keep you in stitches with their clowning! They always bring a smile, and that’s a great reason to celebrate those cute little guys in cake form. 

This minion cake is easily made with a box of Betty Crocker SuperMoist Butter Recipe Yellow cake mix and a 9- by 13-inch sheet pan. 

To get started you’ll need to bake your cake and let it cool completely. Place it on a large baking sheet that has been lined with a non-stick paper such as parchment or wax coated paper.

Trim away the square edges of the cake with a serrated knife. This doesn’t have to be perfectly even, just as long as the cake is an oblong shape, it’ll do fine.

Trim a short end flat. Don’t remove too much of the cake, just 1/2-inch or so. This flat end will be the bottom of the cake

Place 3/4 of the container of whipped frosting into a bowl and stir in yellow food coloring. Add food coloring a little at a time until a bright yellow color is achieved.

Frost cake with a thin coat of yellow icing. This is known as a “crumb coat”, which means it will catch all the loose crumbs (and doesn’t have to look perfect). Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Remove cake and frost with a final coating of yellow icing. A large offset spatula will help create a perfectly smooth coating, so if you have one, be sure to use it! Next the cake will need to be refrigerated until the icing is firm, about 15 minutes.

When the icing is set, use an offset spatula to make an upward curving line in the icing about 4 inches from the bottom of the cake.

Place the blue Betty Crocker Decorating Icing in a small bowl and stir until smooth. This icing is thicker than normal icing, so if you have trouble spreading it, heat it in the microwave in a heat-proof bowl until it can be stirred smooth, about 10 seconds.

Frost the bottom (including bottom edges) of the cake with the blue icing up to the line.

Use a licorice lace to cover the line made by the spatula. This will neaten the edge. Use a pair of dedicated kitchen scissors to snip away the excess licorice, if needed. Now you’ll refrigerate cake for 30 to 45 minutes.

For the minion’s eye, frost the chocolate-covered mint patty with a thick layer of the remaining whipped cream frosting.

The icing should stand about three-quarters of an inch above the mint patty.

Place a chocolate drop into the icing pointed-end-down. I chose to put the chocolate drop slightly off-center, but you could put it in the middle if you want your minion to look straight ahead.

Knead together the five chewy chocolate candies.

When completely combined and malleable, roll the candy between your palms into a rope. Press the rope around a plastic tumbler with a 3 1/4- 3 1/2-inch diameter rim. Press the loose ends together to secure.

Gently lift the tumbler away from the candy. Coat the chocolate candy ring with a little corn syrup using a pastry brush—you may not have to use all of the corn syrup.

Place the silver sugar in a dish and dip the chocolate ring into the sugar.

Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Gently peel it away from the paper and place the cake onto a cake board or serving platter (I used a black sheet of foam core board from the craft store). Place the eye towards the top center of the cake.

Place the silver ring around the eye.

Press two chocolate drops into the blue portion of the cake just under the licorice lace to the left and right side to create “buttons “on the jumper.

Lay a four-inch piece of licorice onto the cake a few inches below the eye in a half-curve to create the Minion’s smile. You could also use a larger piece of licorice to give him a great big smile!

Cut two licorice laces into three-inch pieces and insert them into the top of the cake to create the minions’ hair.

Use more licorice laces to outline the bottom edges of the cake. Use one to outline the minion’s jumper.

Attach the plain tip (provided) to the Betty Crocker Easy Flow icing nozzle.

Draw two lines of icing about two inches apart on either side of the silver eye piece. Fill in the lines with more icing and then smooth it with a small knife or spatula.