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Donald Duck Cake

My son requested a Donald Duck cake for his third birthday. I thought that sounded hard, so I kept saying things like “what about a cake that has Mickey Mouse ears instead?”. But, he’s persistent, and wouldn’t budge. At one point he did tell me that he wanted his Donald cake to have a tuba, but since I didn’t want my almost three year old bossing me around, and I’m not Cake Boss, I drew the line and said no to the tuba. I did agree to Donald.

The cake was two tiered. The bottom was a three layer 8″ cake (chocolate cake with oreo cookie dough filling), and the top was a three layer 6″ cake (vanilla cake with sugar cookie dough filling).

Any time I make a tiered cake, I put each cake on a cardboard round. I use three wooden supports in the bottom layer on which the top tier will rest.

For this cake, I covered the outside in blue fondant. I purchased pre-colored Wilton blue fondant. For Donald’s bowtie, hat, and hat ribbons, I used gel food coloring with a mixture of 1/2 fondant & 1/2 gum paste to reach the desired colors. As I wanted the pieces with gum paste to dry and have some stability, I made each of them 2 days before the birthday party. For Donald’s beak, tongue, head, eyes, and tongue, I used gel food coloring with white fondant to reach the desired colors.

To make each of Donald’s features, I downloaded and printed a Donald face craft cutout I found online. I printed then cut out each piece of the face on paper, set the cutouts on the fondant, and gently traced around them with a toothpick. Once an impression was made from the toothpick, I used a knife to cut each piece out.

To stick Donald on the cake, I used water on a food brush to paint the back of each piece of the Donald cutout. Water makes the fondant sticky enough to adhere to the underlying fondant.

I would like to mention that there is a moral to this story. If you’re not talented in the area of drawing, but want to make your kid a cake that requires such talent, find some talented person’s work on the internet, print it, and trace it. Your kid will think you’re a rockstar. Or, they’ll just ask why there isn’t a tuba.

Things I used to make this cake, all of which I recommend (all affiliate links):

Baking the cakes:

• Chicago Metallic Professional Non-Stick Round Cake Pan, 8-inch I use these for all my 8″ cakes as I believe they bake well
• Wilton 6″ Baking Pans I have 3 for any time I’m making a tiered cake
• Parchment Paper Liners for Round Cake Pans 8-inch These cut out a lot of time in my cake making process
• Kitchen Aid Mixer This is the most used small appliance in my kitchen, well besides the microwave, and I love it

Displaying the cakes:

• Wilton Cake Leveler See about me to understand why I love this thing
• Wilton 10-Inch Cardboard Cake Circle This is perfect for transporting a cake

Decorating the cakes:

• Wilton Fondant Roller I use this to roll cookie dough too as the rings allow you to make dough a uniform thickness
• Wilton Fondant I’ve made fondant before, and no me, it’s just not worth it – WIlton’s fondant is significantly easier and tastes better
• Wilton Gel Food Coloring
• Wilton Gum Paste
• Wilton Cut and Roll Mat
• Wilton Fondant Smoother
• Wilton Fondant Tools This basic set is almost entirely what I use