My nephew was turning 2 and he wanted a Cars cake for his birthday party. I got a few great ideas from the internet, You Tube included (told you I have a You Tube addiction). After sorting through various designs, I kinda incorporated a few into one.
My first goal was to figure out how to make the car shape. From what I read, most people carved theirs out of a stacked rectangle cake. This seemed a bit daunting to me, as I've never carved anything out of cake, let alone an entire car! I knew Wilton made a 3D car pan, though it was more of a coupe or Volkswagon-like shape. I figured that was better than nothing. Perhaps with a little carving, I could make it work.
As you can see, I did manage to get a decent Lightning McQueen shape. The front end is a little flat. In retrospect, I should have built it up with some pieces of cake or even fondant. But I don't think Paxton cared. He seemed to love it anyway. I also got several compliments on it so I was happy with the result.
Of course, no car cake is complete with out some car-ish paraphernalia. I added some orange caution cones, some big tires with racing tread, and a few signs here and there.
And of course, no Cars cake is complete without a Radiator Springs sign. I love the little round cactus with the pink and yellow flowers. The car cake is made out of a cream cheese pound cake, the bottom tier is a 14 inch round, 3 inch tall yellow cake and covered in marshmallow fondant. Most of the nicknaks were made out of regular fondant and/or gumpaste.
*You can see more of my cake designs on my
Flickr page*
