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

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

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

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

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

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