Make These Minnie Mouse Cupcakes for Valentine’s Day!
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Make these Minnie Mouse Cupcakes for the Disney lover in your life! Red velvet cupcakes are topped with a swirl of white and red frosting and topped off with Minnie’s signature bow. These adorable cupcakes wouldn’t be complete without Minnie Mouse’s ears! These ones have got a super cute heart design on them, making them a yummy edible gift for Valentine’s Day too!
I’ve got lots of fun and easy Cupcake Recipes for Parties and celebrations (and for everyday treats!) for you to try out – right-click and open these other recipes in a new tab so that you can read them after this one!
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Minnie Mouse Cupcakes
When we visit Walt Disney World, one of my favourite snacks to grab is a cupcake. Disney makes THE BEST cupcakes! They are always so awesome to look at, and they taste amazing too!
I could totally see this cupcake sitting in the display cabinet at a Disney Resort, and it is in my humble opinion that you make these Minnie Mouse cupcakes for Valentine’s Day!
Whether you make them for your kids or for your class or your friends or for your beau, cupcakes are always a delicious gift to receive.
The cupcakes are red velvet which isn’t as common in the UK as it is in the US, so let me quickly tell you about this flavor of cupcake:
Red velvet cake is traditionally a red, red-brown, crimson or scarlet colored chocolate layer cake, layered with white cream cheese or ermine icing. Traditional recipes do not use food coloring, with the red color due to non-Dutched, anthocyanin-rich cocoa.
Wikipedia
If you enjoy learning about food history, do check out the Wiki page as it’s fascinating!
Ingredients used in this recipe
The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, but here is a brief outline so you know what to expect from the recipe.
I highly recommend always reading a recipe all the way through before starting.
These Minnie red velvet cupcakes are made from scratch, and like the traditional cake, they are red (from food coloring) with a slight chocolate flavor from cocoa powder and red velvet extract. They are also topped with a two-color cream cheese frosting.
The ears and bow are made from fondant. If you’ve never worked with fondant before, make sure you read my top tips further down the page!
Alongside regular baking ingredients like butter, flour, sugar, etc., you will need some more specialized ingredients which I’ve linked below to Amazon for your convenience.
- Fondant (Sugarpaste) in the following colors:
- Edible Pink Food Spray
- Gel Food Coloring in the following colors:
- Red Velvet Extract
- Heavy Whipping Cream (Double Cream)
- Vanilla Extract
Equipment used in this recipe
You are likely to have most standard cooking tools in your kitchen but I’ve added some Amazon links for your convenience should you need something more specific for this recipe.
- Wilton Bow Mold (from Michaels in the US) or a silicone bow mold from Amazon
- 4″ round cutter
- Hearts Stencil – there are lots of different styles and sizes of hearts – use your favorite!
- Fondant Rolling Pin
- Cupcake pan
- Red Cupcake Liners
- Piping Bag
- Large Star Tip – Wilton 1M
- Wire Cooling Rack
- Ice Cream Scoop – this helps to scoop cupcake batter evenly. Get one with a trigger mechanism as they’re easier to work with.
- Electric Mixer – stand or handheld
Minnie Mouse Cupcakes Recipe Tips
Using Fondant
If you have never worked with fondant before, don’t panic – it is really easy to use, follow my tips and you’ll be just fine!
- Dust your work surface with powdered sugar so that the fondant doesn’t stick. Think of it like the way you use flour when rolling out dough.
- Rub a little powdered sugar into your hands and knead a handful of the fondant to make it more pliable before rolling, rather than using straight from the package.
- Dust your rolling pin too, and roll fondant to about ¼” thick. Some fondant rolling pins have guides you can use. You don’t want it too thick as it will take ages to dry, and you don’t want it too thin as it will become more tricky to work with.
- Cutting the Ears: Pour a little pile of powdered sugar onto your surface and dip the cookie cutter into it before cutting the ears – again, this is to prevent sticking. Place on a cookie sheet to dry for at least 6 hours – overnight and up to 24 hours is best.
- Decorating the Ears: Make sure they are fully dry before spraying the edible pink food spray through the heart stencil.
- Molding the Bows: Using the red fondant pinch off pieces of fondant and place it into the large bow mold. Carefully pop out the bow and set aside. Place on a cookie sheet to dry for at least 6 hours – overnight and up to 24 hours is best.
- If there is excess powdered sugar on the pieces, you can gently brush away with a pastry brush, or an unused, clean paintbrush.
- Alternatively, you can use a vodka spray. Pour some vodka into a mini spray bottle and gently mist the fondant wings. Vodka dries quicker than water which is why it is usually used when handling fondant.
- Always make extra pieces – that way if some break or you have another mishap, you have got backups that you can use.
- Leave the fondant pieces to harden in a cool, dry place – do not place in the fridge.
- The fondant pieces should be solid enough to handle and insert into the cupcakes after 3 – 6 hours. I personally leave fondant pieces to dry for around 24 hours. How long this takes, however, is based on the size and thickness of the fondant, and how humid your house is, so judge best if they will hold up as they need to in the cupcakes.
- When making cakes or cupcakes that use fondant decorations I like to make them a few days ahead of time which allows for drying without the stress. Fondant that isn’t dry enough can mean disappointing end results.
- After using fondant the surface will be super sticky (it always is in my experience!) so you will probably have to wipe away the sugar first, then give it a soapy hot wash over and then another clean over! You can always by a fondant rolling mat for easier cleanup!
- Any unused fondant should be wrapped well in plastic wrap and stored in an airtight container so that it doesn’t dry out. This way it can be used for other cake decorating projects.
Cupcakes & Frosting
- If you don’t want to make the cupcakes from scratch you could always use a red velvet cake box mix (I won’t tell!)
- Use an ice cream scoop to divide the cake batter between the cupcake liners. This will help you get evenly sized cupcakes.
- The frosting recipe uses unsalted Sweet Cream Butter – in the UK, sweet cream butter is our regular butter – buy unsalted. You can read all about different types of butter here.
- Food Coloring Tips: Use good quality food coloring gel or paste as the color will be more vibrant. Do not use liquid color as this will change the consistency of the cake batter, and really won’t taste good!
- Remember that you can always add more color, but not take it away. Add a little to start with and add more to get the shade required.
- Frosting the cupcakes: These Minnie Mouse cupcakes are topped with a two-color frosting. You can do this in two different ways:
- Scoop half the side of the piping bag with white frosting and the other half with red, then squeeze some frosting out until the two colors mix together.
- Or, use the double piping bag by putting a piping bag of each color into another piping bag fitted with the tip and frosting as usual. Wilton has a great demonstration video on YouTube that I highly recommend.
- If you are not confident with your piping skills you can practice on some parchment paper first and scoop the frosting back into the bag – just make sure you practice with ONE color and not the two mixed together!
Make It A Valentine’s Meal!
You’ve made the dessert, but what about the rest of the courses? Here are some recipes to take a look at to make a complete meal for Valentine’s Day!
- Starter/Appetizer: Balsamic Mozzarella Stuffed Grape Tomatoes
- Main Dish: Youvetsi – Greek Lamb Orzo with Feta
- Side Dish: Cypriot Village Salad
- Cocktail: Prosecco Cocktail
There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy! Please feel free to check them out too.
More Disney Ears Cupcake Recipes
Want to make more Disney Ears cupcakes? Check these ones out next:
Minnie Mouse Cupcakes
Make these super cute Minnie Mouse Cupcakes for Valentine's Day!
Ingredients
For the Cupcake Decorations
- Powdered Sugar (Icing Sugar)
- 1 package (4.4oz/124g) red fondant
- 1 package (4.4oz/124g) whitefondant
- Edible Pink Food Spray
For the Cupcakes
- 2½ cups flour
- 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1½ tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter, softened, plus 4 tbsp.
- ¼ cup softened shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 Tbsp Red Velvet extract
- 1 cup milk
- 1 Tbsp red gel food coloring
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted sweet cream butter, softened
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- 6 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Red gel food coloring
Instructions
- To make the bows, use about a tablespoon of red fondant and press it into a bow mold to form the fondant bow. Carefully pop out of the mold. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and leave to dry for at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours if possible. Make 22 total.
- To make the fondant Minnie Mouse ears, dust your surface and rolling pin with powdered sugar and roll out the white fondant to ¼" thick. Cut out 22 x 4" circles with a round cutter. Place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and leave to dry for at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours if possible.
- When the fondant ears are fully dried it is time to spray paint them. Place some paper towels or scrap paper to avoid painting your counters. Place a fondant ear onto the paper then place a heart stencil on top. Lightly spray with edible pink food spray and wait a few seconds before carefully lifting off the stencil. Repeat with all of the other ears and set aside to dry.
- Make a few extra fondant decorations as a backup, just in case any break!
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line cupcake pan with red cupcake liners.
- Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.
- Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Mix in the egg, vanilla extract, red velvet extract, and red gel food coloring until combined.
- Alternating between the dry ingredients and milk, gradually mix both ingredients into the butter mixture until combined.
- Use an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the cake batter between the liners.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, use an electric mixer to combine the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla on medium speed until combined and smooth, stiff peaks form.
- Divide the frosting between two bowls.
- Add a red food coloring to one of the bowls of frosting a little at a time to get your desired shade of red. Remember you can always add more coloring, but not take it away!
- Scoop white frosting into one half of a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip, then scoop the red frosting into the other half. Squeeze out some frosting to make sure colors have combined, then pipe swirls onto the cool cupcakes.
- Place the bow in the top middle of the frosting.
- Place the Minnie Mouse ears on either side of the bow.
Notes
Make the fondant ears and bows at least 6 hours in advance (or 24 hours if you can) so that they can harden for use.
You will also need the following tools for decorating the cakes:
- silicone bow mold - with a large and small bow
- 4" round cookie cutter
- Hearts Stencil
- Large piping bag
- Large star tip (Wilton 1M)
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 22 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 352Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 48mgSodium: 249mgCarbohydrates: 49gFiber: 0gSugar: 37gProtein: 3g
This site uses an outside source (Nutritionix) to provide estimated nutrition. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.