Claire’s Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

My baby girl turned two years old today! We had a Minnie Mouse themed birthday party since that is her current obsession. Evan had a Mickey Mouse birthday party when he turned three, so it worked out that I already had a few supplies. Here’s a link to Claire’s Spring Garden themed first birthday party last year.

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My mom flew in a couple of days ahead of time to decorate the cake. I made this Vanilla Almond Cake from Around My Family Table for the base. I first made the recipe for Evan’s third birthday party and it was such a huge hit that I have used it for every birthday since. For the top, I made this Ube (Filipino Purple Sweet Potato) Chiffon Cake from Salu Salo. Most of the Ube recipes I have come across use ube extract or artificial ingredients. I liked this version since it uses mashed ube (I found frozen ube at the local Asian food market) and creates a light natural purple color.

Mom made pink and white buttercream to cover the cake and smoothed it using an offset spatula and a little hot water (be careful with the water- too much will mess up the color).

She used fondant to form Minnie’s bow and ears. The little white and black circles were cut out using the back of a piping tip and a small dowel rod helped form some texture to the center. The white circles were arranged on the bow and around the base of the cake. Evan enjoyed working with the extra fondant making different animals and shapes with a handful of cookie cutters.

She also cut out little black circles to make Minnie heads on the top tier and piped little pink bows on them.

The large black ears were formed on toothpicks to help secure them onto the cake.

Claire was a huge fan. She didn’t quite blow out the candle on her own, but luckily she had big brother to help.

For the food, I made Shish Taouk (Syrian Chicken Skewers), a Hot Diggity Dog Bar (Hot Dogs- did the same for Evan’s 3rd birthday), Minnie’s Bow-Tie Pasta Salad (Bowtie pasta with a pesto sauce, fresh mozzarella, and cherry tomatoes), Tanzanian Cucumber Salad, Beet Pickled Eggs (from the Food with Friends cookbook), Pancit (mother-in-law made it: Filipino noodles), Lumpa (Filipino Spring Rolls from local restaurant), and Rice Krispies Ears.

I used Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats as the base for these Rice Krispies Ears. After forming into a 1 inch thick rectangle on parchment. I used this Mickey Mouse cookie cutter to cut out the mouse shape. Once they cooled to room temperature, I dipped the tops in melted dark chocolate and sprinkled pink sprinkles on top.

I found these Minnie lanterns at Target.

I arranged the small and large black paper plates in the shape of Minnie. Mom made a second fondant bow as a backup, so I put that over the plates.

I bought pink, black, and purple silverware at Party City. I wrapped them in Minnie Mouse napkins and secured in the center with strips of pink scrapbooking paper to form the shape of bows.

I bought paper cups and used these labels to place white dots all over them. I also found Minnie Mouse straws at Target. I ended up getting cups that were a little too small, so I cut the straws to keep them from falling over. For drinks, I made Raspberry Sherbet Sorbet Punch and Sujeonggwa (Korean Cinnamon Punch). I was only able to find Raspberry Sorbet at the store so it didn’t have the original creamy texture. It was still a huge hit and there wasn’t a drop leftover.

Happy birthday my sweet not-so-baby girl!