Minnie (or Mickey) Fruit Pizza

Please tell me you know it's true that everything tastes better when it's Minnie or Mickey themed!  When we were in the planning stages of our recent Disney Side @ Home Celebration, I searched Pinterest to find any possible Disney themed food to add to our spread.  I found this super cute Mickey Fruit Pizza idea from Craisins, also one of the sponsors of our party!  I used their idea as inspiration but used my own recipe, our favorite fruits, and some creative placement and came up with this beauty.

I will be honest that I had minimal fridge space with so many other treats already prepared so I pulled this decorating together within the 45 minute rush before our guests were scheduled to arrive.  I had prepared the cookie crust in advance the night before, whipped up the icing about a half hour earlier, and then assembled at the last minute.  I intended to follow the exact set up of the Craisins pizza but panicked that it wouldn't look like Mickey in the end so I skipped the face details and just made an outline of the head with the fruit.  I added the Minnie bow at the last second on a whim and am so glad I did!

Super cute, super colorful, and super easy!  This is such a fun and delicious treat.  Why wait for a Disney party?!  Surprise your family today!

Ingredients

Crust:

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Icing:

• 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softenend
• 2 tablespoons frozen limeade concentrate
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Decorations:

• purple grapes
• green grapes
• blueberries
• strawberries
• canned pineapple
• canned mandarin oranges

Directions

Crust:

• Mix shortening, sugar, egg, and vanilla with electric mixer until fluffy
• Add flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix gently with a spoon until combined with wet ingredients
• Spread by hand onto a greased pizza pan
• Bake at 375 for 12 minutes
• Cool completely
• (I prepared this the night before and stored covered on the counter.)

Icing:

• Beat cream cheese, limeade, and powdered sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth
• Spread on crust
• (Original instructions from Pillsbury suggest that you serve immediately or refrigerate up to 2 hours prior to serving.  I didn't spread it the night before because I didn't want the crust to get soggy before the party.)

Decorations:

• Cut fruit into bite sized pieces (we had 3-4 year olds at our party so I wanted to make sure those grapes were quartered, etc)
• Lightly trace outline of the mouse head in the icing with a knife and then place your fruit accordingly!
• It's so easy, and if you mess up, just start over.  This is fool proof... you can do it!

We kept our fruit pizza intact until we just couldn't bear the wait of eating it any longer and then we sliced with a pizza cutter.  Next time I may try to cut the pizza after icing and before decorating so that it stays pretty longer.  I'm not sure whether it would work but it might be worth a try.  If you try it, let me know how it goes!

We stored out leftovers covered in the fridge.  It does get a little bit soggy but still delicious... you just wouldn't want to serve the leftovers to guests necessarily.  It's best served fresh!

Recipe adapted from Craisins, Pillsbury, and a recipe I got years ago from a friend!

Special thanks to Keiko S. Dowell Photography for the image!

Enjoy!