the hidden Mickey | Lottie Does

Not everyone is aware of the hidden Mickey, which is part of the beauty of it really.

But the clever folks over at Disney HQ have managed to sneak thousands of the little guys into pretty much every aspect of Disney life; you can find them all over the Disney parks and snuck into the films in the strangest of places.

And while artsy stuff isn’t my strong point, cake is. So I made this:

Hidden Mickey cake!

And you can do it to 🙂

You will need:

250g butter, 250g caster sugar, 5 eggs, 30g cocoa powder, 220g self raising flour, vanilla extract and your favourite frosting

a loaf tin and a swiss roll tin, both greased and lined with baking paper

a mickey mouse shaped cookie cutter

an oven preheated to 180C

First things first, cream together 150g butter, 150g caster sugar, then beat in 3 eggs. Stir together the 30g cocoa powder and 120g self-raising flour and whisk into the mix. Boom, chocolate cake batter!

Pour this into your pre-prepared swiss roll tin, and spread to the edges using a spatula, making sure it is smooth all over.

If you don’t own a swiss roll tin, you can always bake a chocolate cake in a regular cake tin, it just may need leveling off before the next step.

Bake for 10 mins until the cake springs back when lightly poked 🙂

Once cooled, take your Mickey cutter and go to town on it!

Depending on the thickness of your cake, you may find you get enough Mickeys out of it for a second loaf.

Now for the slightly trickier bit.. Line up your Mickeys in the centre of your prepared loaf tin so that they are tightly packed and less likely to slip out of place.

You’re aiming for a sort of Mickey sausage!

Then cream together the remaining 100g butter, 100g sugar, a tsp or so of vanilla extract and 2 eggs, and mix in the 100g self-raising flour to make the surrounding batter.

Slowly pour the mix over the Mickeys and spread evenly across the tin. You’ll probably find the Mickey ears are a little taller than the rest, but this will be fine once the cake has risen!

Bake for approx. 20 mins, until the cake springs bake when touched or a skewer inserted down the sides comes out clean.

Once cooled decorate as you wish 🙂 I always like to decorate my hidden surprise cakes so they hint at the centre, but don’t give it away just yet!