Preheat oven to 350 (175 celsius). Cream together 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup unsalted butter. Add in two eggs, and mix in vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour and 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder. Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. Add milk and stir until the cake batter is smooth. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool cake completely then wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it.

Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of butter and about 4 cups of icing, 1 tsp of vanilla and 2 tsp of cream or milk. Blend it with a hand mixer or stand mixer until it’s fully mixed and no sugar crystals remain. If you think you've put in too much moisture with your milk or cream, try adding a bit more powdered sugar or put your icing in the fridge to firm up if it's starting to melt.

Take ¾ of your icing out into a new bowl and mix in red food coloring. Set aside this red icing for decorating with later.

Put a layer of white frosting all over the Mickey Mouse birthday cake as a crumb coat. You can freeze your cake again if you feel like things are particularly crumbly. Then add a second, smoother layer of frosting over your Mickey smash cake as a final layer of icing.

I used milk chocolate candy melts to create the chocolate ganache drips on the side of my Mickey Mouse smash cake. Follow the directions on the package of your candy melts and use either a microwave-safe bowl or a double boiler to melt your chocolate.

To thin out your candy melts so they drip over the side of your birthday cake, stir in some cream until you reach the desired consistency.

Do a ‘test drip’ on the side of a bowl to see if it’s too runny or still too thick before trying it on your cake. Once your chocolate is warm and thinned out, put it in a piping bag or ziploc bag with the tip cut. Add your chocolate drips to the side of your smash cake and then flood the top of the cake with the remaining chocolate ganache.

Pick up your Mickey cake and put it inside a big baking sheet to catch any extra sprinkles that will spill at this step. Use your fingers to lightly press red sprinkles into the side of your first birthday cake, all the way around.

Add large swirls of red icing to the top of your cake. Use a piping bag and a large star tip. Space them out so there is enough room between them for your ‘Mickey ears’ in the next step.

My chocolate candy melts looked dull and cloudy because they had chocolate dust. To make them look more like shiny Mickey Mouse ears, I used a tiny bit of vegetable oil on my fingers to rub them with.

Place two chocolate candy melts on each red swirl to make it look like a Mickey Mouse cake.