You can use any cake recipe you like. Most cake recipes are for an 8" layer. This is absolutely fine. Don't scale them down. Just use your leftover batter to make a couple of cupcakes. For this cake I have used my chocolate avocado cake recipe, doubled
Preheat the oven to gas 3 / 160C / 325F and grease the pudding basin well with some spray oil. Cut a circle of baking paper for the flat part on the bottom of the bowl and put it in
Make up your cake batter. For each layer you need enough batter to fill 1 x 6" round cake tin or a loaf tin. This is around 2.5 - 3 cups or 900g - 1000g worth of batter. This is enough to fill the pudding basin 3/4 full too. This equalled half of my avocado cake recipe so to make this cake, I made half of that particular recipe 4 times
Put the bowl cake in the oven for 75 - 90 minutes. A toothpick test will show when it's ready. Don't be tempted to open the oven door before the 75 minute mark and be sure to bake the basin on top of an oven tray in case the batter overflows
While the cake is baking you can make the minions goggles
Roll out some white fondant so it's 1/2 cm thick
Use a round cookie cutter (I used a 2cm wide one) to cut the initial shape from, then use another cutter a size smaller to cut the middle out of it
Repeat so you have 2
Pinch off some icing from an offcut and roll into 14 little balls. Squash them down a little bit
Dab with a bit of water, stick both goggles together then stick the balls around them
Use a little silver lustre dust, spray or food dye to 'paint' the goggles. Set aside to dry
Using the same sized cutter you used for the outer goggles, cut another 2 circles for the eyes
I used some cocoa powder added to some of the white icing and make little balls to make the iris
Add a tiny ball of black for the pupil. You could use edible ink for this too
Stick it all together with the gogges on top and let dry. Squash the edges where the goggles will meet a wee bit like this and colour the rim of the eyes to match the goggles
Also make feet by shaping some black like this about an inch and a half high so they look like the soles of shoes
Once the bowl cake has baked, turn up the oven to gas 4 / 180C / 350F and bake the 3 layers of 6" cakes for 60 - 75 minutes or until done
Let each layer cool completely then wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for a few hours so they'll be easier to cut later
Trim up each layer to even the tops and sides
Then cut each in half horizontally
Start to stack the layers on a cakeboard, sandwiching a thin layer of buttercream icing inbetween each one
Put the bowl cake on the top and you can see your basic minion form now
Use some cake dowelling to hold the structure together - I have just used thin wooden barbeque skewers trimmed to fit the height of the cake
Spread the entire cake with a thin layer of buttercream to catch any crumbs and chill in the fridge for an hour to set
Spread another thin layer of buttercream over the top of that, smooth down again then you're ready to start with the decorating
Starting with the yellow, roll out into a circle wide enough to cover the bowl cake
Smooth down and trim with a sharp knife where the centre of the eyes would cover the overlap
For the body roll out more yellow in a large rectangle wide enough to wrap around the circumference of the cake, around 20 inches long by 8 wide
Smooth down and trim off at the join
Roll out blue the same length but only 3 or so inches high to make the bottom part of the minions dungarees
Wet the back with a tiny bit of water to help it stick and smooth it down. Join at the front if you want to as we'll cover it anyway
Roll another square around 8"long by 4" wide and cut into this shape
Wet the back and position over the join, creasing slightly at the bottom to give the illusion of pockets. Add some stitching detail with a blunt knife or craft roller if you like
Trim 2 long thin straps for the dungarees. Wet and stick on to the front corners at the front and at the back
Cut a small pocket shape, wet the back and stick to the front, again adding stitching detail if you want to. Use 2 stubby cylinders to make short legs
Wet the shoes and stick to the bottom of the legs
Roll the leftover yellow into 2 thin snakes. These will be the arms. Offer them up to the cake directly under the dungaree straps and trim to size to reach the pockets
Position and stick the arms on with some water. Push the ends carefully into the pockets
Roll out 5 small black buttons and stick 4 onto where the straps meet the body and one for the pocket
Carefully stick the eyes & goggles on right over that head join
Roll out a thin strip of black for the goggle strap
Stick it on over where the 2 joins meet on the head
Use a blunt knife to indent a smile on the minions face
Done! Wasn't that easier than you thought?! Side view
Cut view
