Mickey's All-Ears Cake

1. Melt 3 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, in a double boiler or microwave.

2. Remove baked and cooled chocolate cake from custard cup and place on a small plate.

3. Use a serrated knife to trim the cake into a dome or hat shape. Push two round chocolate wafer cookies into the dome -- these are your Mickey ears.

4. Pour melted chocolate over the dome. Be careful to avoid dripping on the cookie ears.

5. Place the plate in the refrigerator while the chocolate sets, about an hour.

6. While your chocolate hat is setting, stack baked 8" cakes to make a 2-layer cake, spread frosting between the layers. Frost the cake with red icing.

Red frosting tips: Red frosting can be purchased from cake supply stores, or can be made by adding gel food coloring to icing. It may take quite a bit of coloring to reach the desired shade of red. Gel food coloring often darkens over time, so you may want to mix your frosting a few hours in advance.

7. Once the chocolate has set, it's time to crown the cake with Mickey's hat. Remove the plate from the refrigerator and loosen the chocolate dome from the plate using a sharp knife. Be careful not to crack the chocolate shell! If you are having trouble, let the chocolate soften up a bit before removing, this should only take a few minutes.

8. Place the chocolate hat on top of the red layer cake.

9. Dab dots of white icing buttons on top of the cake.

10. Use your white gel icing to write the birthday kid's name on the dome of the hat.