15 August 2010

Despicable Me Birthday Cake: How to Make A Minion


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After making so many minions for my daughter's Despicable Me birthday cake, I feel somewhat qualified (as Chief Minion) to give this tutorial. Before you embark on this venture, you should note that an alternative, but no less appropriate, title for this tutorial would be "How to Make Yourself A Minion".

So if you are still not deterred by that warning, here goes:

Materials:
1 box Wilton's Pure White Rolled Fondant
3 - 4 strands rice vermicelli
Wilton Paste Colours in Black, Royal Blue & Golden Yellow
Toothpicks

Prep:
Before you start, dye your fondant separately into black, blue and yellow. (More for yellow, less for blue and even less for black). Reserve some white fondant. Depending on how many minions you wish to make, you may not need to use up the whole box of fondant. (I used less than one box for 15 minions). 
Also dye some strands of rice vermicelli black, for the hair.

Sculpting:

Roll out a yellow piece like this!


Give him eyes ...
Roll out a flat rectangular blue piece and wrap it on him like a little diaper
Roll out 2 blue pieces like these (rectangles with bottom 2 corners trimmed)and attach it to his sides
You may have to do a fair bit of smoothening to make it blend seamlessly. I like to use a toothpick (moistened slightly if necessary) like a mini rolling pin to blend the edges.




















Cut (not roll) 2 long strips for the overall straps
Add buttons to the front, and using a toothpick, render the stitching along the edges of overall and in the front (for pockets)

Roll out two long yellow pieces for the arms (note that they have long arms almost reaching to their feet) and wrap the ends in black for the hands.


Give him black goggles and black shoes.  He should start to look cute at this point ... so exciting!

Stick short pieces of vermicelli for his hair, give him eyes (I like to use a 10ml syringe (without the needle of course) to punch out equal size eyeballs) and draw his mouth with a toothpick.

Feel free to give your minions all sorts of different expressions:



27 comments:

  1. Damn...truly awesome, Wanz...

    I know this gonna sound weird. But do they...taste good? :P :P :P

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  2. This is the coolest thing ever!!!! haha

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  3. Oh my gosh! These are too cute! Wonderful work :)

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  4. So, so cute! I love, love this absolutely. I feel like grabbing each minion out of my computer screen right now!

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  5. this is amazing!!! You did a GREAT job, I am seriously impressed.

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  6. @SirDragonBane: I hate to inform you that fondant doesn't taste too good, it's like sugary plasticine! Which explains why most of the kids just bit the heads off these critters and left the rest behind. It was quite disconcerting to see these yellow headless stumps lying around on the plates ...

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  7. They are SO cute. incredible job!

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  8. These are fantastic! I posted a link on my edible crafts column (ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com). Bravo!

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  9. @Chic Cookies: Thanks for the link! Love your site too btw :)

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  10. Sweet! Love the facial expressions.

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  11. i love this movie... thanks for the tutorials on how to make the minions.. i'll make one as well... :)

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  12. Thank you for sharing! We had so much fun creating a birthday cake for a friend. But as we were sure that he would not like the fondant, we used Marzipan (paste made of almonds and sugar) and it worked out fabulously! ;-)

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  13. How far ahead can I make these? They are so adorable!

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  14. I have never used fondant icing before and I made a Despicable Me cake this weekend following your instructions. I made two minions and a shadow of Gru. It came out great. Thank you!!

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  15. Omg... It's so adorable, I could cry. :)

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  16. Really loving the minions! Living in humid singapore, how do you store them? And how far in advance can you make them? Thanks so much!

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    1. I store them in a dry box! Or in a tupperware with dessicant packets :) You can make them a week ahead.

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  17. I love this. I am glad I found the original owner. Your talent has been doing the rounds on facebook without credit being given to you. I am going to share this link on my page x

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    1. You don't say .... not everyone respects copyright! Thanks for including the link though and your kind comments.

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    2. Your welcome, I really do like your blog and hooe to catch up on your posts :) I have started writing my blog address on most of my photos now. It doesn't look as good but atleast my ownership is there.

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  18. You inspired me so much!! Do I have the permission to make this minions with modeling clay? Thank you so much and keep up the good work. Your daughter will be grateful!

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    Replies
    1. Sure, do go ahead and appreciate a linkback if you do ;)

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