Minnie Mouse Mess

Hey! It’s Eileen again; chiming in for Beth while she travels Europe!

Let me start by saying, Minnie Mouse turned out super cute! (Just so you aren’t worried!) This is a story about Baking Partners in Crime and what happens when they are not there to bake with you. I agreed to make a first birthday cake for a friend the first weekend in April. Only much later did I realize that Beth would be in France. “It’s OK,” I thought, “I can do it myself!” Well, Beth will tell you, math is not my strong point. Especially in baking. Beth knows if I am counting out loud, all conversation must stop so I don’t miss count. Well I didn’t even get to the counting out loud part before this mess began.

We make cakes from scratch. We don’t do boxes. I was making a Wilton character pan (the Mickey that I would decorate as a Minnie) and I couldn’t seem to find how many cups of batter go into a character pan. All I found was ‘one box mix’. This was no help, as I don’t do box mixes and therefore have no idea how many cups of batter come out of a box mix! It would have been smart to call my Mom, as she has made SO many character pans in her life, she would know. (Even though she makes box mixes. Shhh!) Instead I decided to try to add how many cups of batter the Wilton yearbook says go in a two layer 9in round cake, (plus a little extra) PLUS what I thought I needed for 6 cupcakes (also part of the order). THEN I had to figure out which size recipe to use!

Like I said math is not my strong point. Luckily, the batter came out right, but I had WAY too much of it! I ignored my instincts that were saying “Hey there is way too much batter in this pan!” and went with my math that said “This is how many cups of batter the pan should have!” Big mistake! I caught most of it on a cookie sheet, but I will be cleaning my oven this week! :(

Either way, Minnie turned out adorable, and the homemade fondant cupcake toppers weren’t so bad either!

Moral of the story is: Don’t let your Baking Partner in Crime go to France when you have a cake to do! :)

Oh yeah, and a box mix makes about 5 1/2 cups of batter; and my Mom says you should have about 6-7 cups of batter for a Wilton character pan! :)

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