Ann Reardon

Despicable Me 2 3D Minion Cake Decorating Tutorial

IMG_2646Despicable Me 2 is coming soon and my middle boy loves the cute minions, so this year he wanted a minion birthday cake. There have also been some requests from subscribers for a 3D upright cake tutorial and despicable me cake, so I filmed the making of his cake for you.

You will need:
round cake boards x 2 (one 8cm (3.15 inches) and one 15cm (5.91 inches) in diameter)
2 x 32cm (12.6 inches) cake spikes and four shorter cake spikes
base wooden or mdf cake board
Four lots of the Vanilla Cake Recipe 8 x 20cm (7.87 inches) tins, trimmed down to 16cm (6.3 inches) in diameter.
2 quantities of Buttercream Recipe in flavour of your choice
Fondant: 800g (28.22 ounces) yellow, 20g (0.71 ounces) brown, 50g (1.76 ounces) white fondant and 300g (10.58 ounces) blue (fondant recipe here, how to colour fondant here)
100g (3.53 ounces) Black fondant
Silver luster dust
Lollies and candles to go around the cake (optional)
This cake will make about 40 serves

Making a 3D Minion Cake
1. TEMPLATE: For any 3d cake that you want to make I recommend finding a picture of the character that you want to make, enlarge it to the size you want the finished cake to be and use that as your guide for sizing the cake and details. Here is the minion picture that I used, it is over two pages so you will need to cut and tape together Minion Template

2. DETAILS: Fondant details can be made up to a month in advance and left to dry out. Use the printout that you made of your character to guide you in the size. If you have never worked with fondant before watch the fondant basics video for help on colouring fondant.
To make the details for this minion cake see the video for instructions.

3. FRAME: You need a frame to support your cake.
Place your round cake boards onto the base board and drill two holes through both pieces of cardboard and through the base. Position the holes where you want the minions legs to be.
Drill two more holes one in front and the other behind the ones you’ve just done and add a short stick to each so that it sticks up above the board by 3cm (1.18 inches).
If your drill holes are not super tight then you can glue those in place. Put your smaller base board on top.

4. CAKES: Bake your cakes. For this cake I used 20cm (7.87 inches) round cake tins and trimmed them down to 16cm (6.3 inches). It took 8 cakes. 3D cakes take a deceptively large amount of cake.

5. FROSTING: You need frosting so the fondant has something to stick to. You can use ganache, I used buttercream.

6. ASSEMBLY: put your supports into place and your base cake board, cover it in a thin layer of buttercream and add your first layer of cake, add more buttercream and then your next layer of cake.
Insert a cake spike down to the cake board and mark off the level, cut two sticks to this same height so the cake is level. Poke them into the cake, add your next cake board and more buttercream. Add the next layer of cake, more buttercream REPEAT that until the cake is the height of your print out. (See the video for a demonstration).

7. CARVING: Use a finely serrated knife to cut away pieces of cake to make it the right shape. The top and the base of the minion is domed so it is fairly simple shape to carve.

8. CRUMB COAT: Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of buttercream, it doesn’t have to look pretty this is just to catch all the crumbs. Place it in the fridge and let it firm up.

9. FROSTING: Add another layer of buttercream over the top and use your pallette knife to smooth it off as best as you can. Then leave it for about 15 minutes and use some paper towel to smooth out any imperfections. Put back in the fridge.

10. DECORATE: See the video above for detailed instructions.

minion cake despicable me 2 minion cake despicable me cake

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

265 Comments View Comments

  1. Just wanted to say thank you for your amazing tutorial. I followed it to make two minions for my son’s 3rd birthday at the weekend. I had to abandon the idea of standing minions as they weren’t stable but I was really pleased with the results and my son was so happy with them. Thanks again!

    • Wow you made two, I am impressed, love the purple one

  2. I made the minion cake for my auntie

    • That is awesome Ryan well done

  3. When I make a fondant cake, can I use ganache instead of butter cream?
    0v0

    • Yes! read step 5

  4. hi ann just wanted to know what luster dust do you use that we can eat? ty

    • Hi LIsa, cake decorating stores sell edible luster dusts

  5. Hey Ann, Keep meaning to post this is mine and mums attempt at the minion cake (Gluten Free) that we did for my uncles birthday back in November 🙂 Other than the front circle snapping just before assembly, My uncle may of got a little to attached to it no joke haha, Thanks for all the awesome recipes.

    • Awesome Dannie, great job

  6. Thank you so much for this tutorial. I’ve been wanting to make a minion for a while and decided one would perfect for my birthday. Here’s a picture and thank you again 🙂

    • Oh, the picture didn’t upload 🙁

  7. Hi Ann,

    Just wanted to share a picture of my 3d Minion cake I finished today for my sister’s birthday on the weekend.

    I bought the fondant which I was surprised with how easy it was to work with.

    Thanks for the great instructions!

    • awww he’s so cute. Wonderful cake, I hope your sister loved it.

      • Was wondering how much is this despicable me minion cake ….

  8. I made this way back in October and I am finally publishing and getting around to telling you THANK YOU! This tutorial was a lifesaver (as I mentioned in the post on my website). I’ve never done a 3D cake before, and you were incredibly helpful.

    • One more pic. Had a bit of an arm issue the day of the party, so that’s why you can see a crutch in the background, but no guests really even noticed. Stuck out like crazy to me though! 😉

    • looks great candace well done

  9. Dear Ann,

    Thank you so much for your video tutorial and detailed instructions. I made this for my (older) sister in December and she was in tears when she finally got to see it. She had no idea what was coming. It was a tough challenge, specially because I had nevered worked with fondant before and I had to colour it myself. You make wrapping the fondant around “like a coat put on backwards” a breeze! I needed three attempts and the arms came out quite wrinkled, I had to dig in to find the toothpicks. In the end, it was worth all of the hard work.
    For those of you asking: I took my cake by car to the bar where the birthday was being held, a good 30 minutes from home. I put a box upside down on top of it, borders joining onto the base of the cake, and stuck it with tape. I carried it on the seat beside me and got help getting it in and out of the car. Mine was quite heavy. I assembled the hairs and some candles I wanted to put round it once I got to the bar. Good luck on your baking and transporting!
    Thanks again for posting this tutorial. Here’s a pic.

    • fantastic Ceci, looks so cute. Great job on transporting too.

  10. Hi Ann,

    Thank you so much for your videos! I made your minion cake for my sons 8th birthday. I had never worked with fondant before and thought it would be a great idea to make it myself.. Big mistake! My little bits broke and had to go out and buy some yellow fondant as the homemade stuff was way to hard to work with! Lol this is my cake a rainbow minion!!!

    • Hi Bec, Commercial fondant is much easier to work with as it has many commercially available additives that make it more pliable and it tends to roll out smoother. Love the coloured inside looks great.

  11. Thought I would share the final outcome of my sons minion cake that I made following your tutorial. Fantastic and so easy to follow. You are brilliant!
    Oh and he loved it x

    • Wow so good, love the little cute ones around the front too

  12. Woah! You totally blew my mind with this. Thank you so much. I love a challenge like this.

  13. Thank you so much for your help, I tweeked your description a bit as my minion is sitting down and my son absolutely loves it!
    Thanks again!!

  14. I want to thank you for this tutorial! It is so awesome. The only question I have is I wanted to know if this cake support is enough to take the cake in a car. We are not having the party at our house. It would have to travel in the car about 15 minutes. If it is not, any tips to make it car sturdy?, lol

    • Hi Akilia, To transport it that far sitting would be a better option, make the legs come out the front on the board. But you will still need the central support and cake boards. Transport with one person holding it if possible as they can be the ‘shock absorber’ as you go.

  15. Hey,

    This looks wonderful I’m just wondering if I would be able to make a smaller minoin that is like about 7cm in diameter. Would it still work if so how much fondant would I need. Just an estimate. Please reply.

    Thankyou,
    Ashley

  16. Hi! This cake seems to be shiny. Mine is not. Did you cover it with something?

    • Hi Oksana, My cake was in the fridge, when it comes out of the fridge is ‘sweats’ slightly with condensation which makes it appear shiny. If you want a longer lasting shiny look see the instructions on this post: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/candy-crush-saga-cake/

      • Thank you!

  17. Hello Ann,
    Thank you, thank you, thank you. I made your minion cake for my grandson’s 3rd birthday and it turned out just perfect. What a party stopper when it came out, a total hit with children and adults alike. I’ve since been thinking of other characters that can be made in 3D and I think I’ll have a go at some of them, I’ll adapt your basic instructions and see what happens. I have to say that you are a very talented lady and I’ll continue to follow your site.

    • Awesome job Jenny, I love the reaction on kids faces when they see an amazing cake.

  18. Ann…this is a perfect cake for anyone…i love minions and i SHOULD make this cake for me…it looks exactly like a minion…so adorable

  19. Thanks Ann for so generously preparing your 3D minion cake tutorial! I’ve just made a minion cake for my son’s birthday over the weekend and would never of had the courage to attempt it if it weren’t for your amazing tutorial…no wonder you’re heading towards 1 million views! You’re inspiring bakers the world over, so thank you! 🙂

  20. I adored making this cake it was SSSOOOOO much fun!!!! I hope you like it. Your videos inspire me to be a better cake decorator. Thank you so much

    • oh he is so cute well done, I love the cupcake

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