Gluten Free Mickey Mouse Chocolate Cake
My birthday is today so I made myself a gluten free Mickey Mouse chocolate cake. It's a fudgy chocolate cake that is SINFUL and just the thing to invoke happiness, something we all need right now!
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Ingredients
CAKE
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1¾ cups (415 ml) milk (or non-dairy alternative)
- ¾ cup (180 ml) canola or vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2¾ cups (550 g) granulated sugar
- 2½ cups (375 g) Kim's gluten free flour blend (or your favorite blend with xanthan gum)
- 1¼ cups (132 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2¼ tsp baking powder
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- 1¼ cups 272 ml) very hot coffee or water
FUDGE FROSTING
- 3¼ cups 400 g) powdered sugar
- ⅔ cup (80 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1½ sticks (150 g) butter, softened
- ⅔ cup plus 3 tbsp (200 ml) boiling water
- 2 ounces (60 g) melted dark chocolate
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- dash of salt
GANACHE
- 8 ounces (228 g) chopped semi-sweet chocolate (or chocolate chips)
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 240 ml) heavy cream
MICKEY MOUSE FACE
- ½ one 14-ounce bag white chocolate coating (NOT Wilton brand--they aren't gluten free) I used Make N Mold brand that I found at AC Moore
- a small amount each of black and red gel food coloring
- two small food-safe paintbrushes
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE:
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray 2 Mickey Mouse silicone cake pans or three 8-inch cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. (If you don't have 3 8-inch pans, you can use 2 9-inch cake pans).
- In a large bowl, add the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla, and granulated sugar and blend until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Pulsing on and off, add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Slowly add the hot coffee on low speed, being careful not to let the hot liquid splash back. Beat just until incorporated. Batter will be thin.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched or a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Allow to cool on wire racks for 15 minutes before removing cakes from pans to cool completely.
FOR THE FUDGE FROSTING:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Add the softened butter and boiling water and blend until smooth. Pour in the melted chocolate and blend to combine. The mixture will be very thin. Refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes, or until thickened up enough to spread on cake.
FOR THE GANACHE:
- Place chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat heavy cream in small saucepan until hot and bubbles begin to form around edges of pan. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Stir mixture until chocolate melts completely. If there are still bits of chocolate not fully melted, place the bowl in the microwave for about 15 seconds at a time, stirring between, until chocolate is fully melted. Allow the ganache to cool to lukewarm before pouring over cake.
FOR THE MICKEY FACE:
- Melt the white chocolate coating as directed on package. Fill the indentations of the outside of the Mickey cake pan with the white chocolate, pushing it into the corners and spreading it uniformly with an angled spatula.
- Place the cake pan, white chocolate side up, in the refrigerator until the chocolate sets, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the refrigerator and carefully peel the silicone away from the chocolate. You will be left with a Mickey face "mask" that has indentations on the opposite side, perfect for outlining with food coloring.
- In very small (mini) prep bowls, place about a dime-sized amount of black gel food coloring in one and about 1/4 of that amount in another. Add the tiniest drop (using a dropper is easiest, but if you don't have one your fingers would also work) to drop about one tiny drop of gluten free vodka or clear rum into the red food coloring and about 2-3 drops into the black, just to loosen it up and make it more like watercolor paint.
- Mix each with a toothpick until well combined. Using a food-safe small paint brush, paint the color onto the mask where it should go (you can use my cake picture as a guide). If you color "out of the lines" wait until it dries and then take a clean toothpick and lightly chip away the mistake.
- Allow the mask to fully dry before adding it to the cake.
TO PUT IT ALL TOGETHER:
- Place one cake layer on a cake plate or board, level it with a serrated knife if need be, and spread with about one cup of the fudge frosting. Add the second cake layer and give the whole cake a light crumb coat (coating the top and sides with a light coating of fudge frosting). Place the cake in the refrigerator to firm up and set, at least 30 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the refrigerator and pour the lukewarm ganache over the cake, not all at once, but carefully adding more to the edges to allow it to run down the sides. As it pools on the cake board, use an angled spatula to pull it up and spread it onto the sides of the cake. Keep adding more around the cake at the edges and pulling it up and onto the sides until the entire cake is fully covered in ganache. You should not use all of the ganache (you may end up with half of it leftover, which can be used for other applications or poured over ice cream).
- Before the ganache sets, take a large amount of sprinkles and dump them onto a baking pan set underneath the cake to catch excess. Fill your hand with sprinkles and, resting your pinky and side of your hand on the cake board, slowly tip your hand towards the cake, applying gentle pressure to stick the sprinkles to the sides of the cake. Go around the whole cake, adding more sprinkles as necessary.
- Refrigerate the cake until everything is completely set, about 30 minutes, before wiping away any excess sprinkles left on the board (don't throw them away--place them in a separate container to be used for another application or sprinkled over ice cream).
- Place the Mickey face on top of the cake and press very lightly to adhere to the ganache. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. The cake can be served cold or at room temperature (take out 15 minutes before serving).