car cake

This past weekend was Jack's birthday, and since he is completely obsessed with cars, I decided to make him a car cake!

Want to make one too?  It's really not too difficult.  Here's how to make it!

What you'll need:

1 box of cake mix, prepared according to directions on package

1 9 inch round pan

1 6 inch round pan

2 mini bunt cake pans

1 batch/container vanilla frosting

1/2 batch/container chocolate frosting

black gel icing

black food coloring

red (or other color) food coloring

1. Trace around the cake pans to make a template for your car cake.  This makes it easier to cut the pieces the right size later.  I traced the full circles first, then drew the lines across the bottom where I wanted the bottom of the car to be, and erased the rest.  

2. Make the cake mix, and pour into each of the pans.  I sprayed them with baking spray first, the kind with flour in it, to make sure they would come out easily.  I also didn't fill the bigger pans quite as high as I might normally, to keep them all relatively even and have enough for each pan.

3. Bake the cakes (it will probably take less time than suggested on the package because they're smaller), then let them cool completely.

4. Place the 9 inch round cake (the biggest one) on your template, and cut off the bottom section to the appropriate size.

5. Place the 6 inch round cake on your template, and cut it for the front and back of the car.  It's basically just 1/4 of the cake.

6. Place all the pieces on whatever surface you plan to serve it on.  I just used a foil-lined cookie sheet.  This will help you see where you may need to trim and adjust.  For instance, my bumper pieces were taller than the main piece, so I trimmed a bit off the bottom to make them more even.  

Don't worry too much if the front and back don't perfectly follow the curve of the bigger piece.  Some of that won't matter once you fit the wheels in, and the rest can mostly be hidden with frosting.

7. Time to cut out a spot for the wheels.  Hold one of the bunt cakes where you want it to fit into the cake, and cut out the cake around it.

Ta-da!  All the pieces are assembled!  Time for frosting!

Here are all my cake "remnants."  Looks a bit creepy with the knife sitting there...

8. Dye about 2/3 to 3/4 of the vanilla frosting red with the red food coloring (or whatever color you want the car to be).  To get it this bright of a red, and not pink, it took more than half a bottle of food coloring.  You could use the food coloring paste - I hear it's better for deeper colors.  But I've never tried it.  Dye the chocolate frosting black with the black food coloring.  (The reason I used chocolate is that it takes way less food coloring, and is less likely to end up looking gray.)  Save the last 1/3 or so of the vanilla for the windows.

9. Frost the main body of the car with the red frosting.  I took the wheels out for this part so it was easier to frost.

10. Frost the wheels with the black frosting.  I found the easiest way to do this was to just hold it in your hand and frost it, then place it back in the cake.

11. To do the windows and lights, I traced the shape with a toothpick, then filled it in with the white frosting.  Then I traced around it with the black gel icing.  

And it was done!  A car cake for my little boy!

He definitely enjoyed it!  He got to eat one of the wheels, and was covered in black frosting by the time he was done! I love the crazy look on his face here.  What a goof, my little two year old!

Update: I recently decided to start a separate food blog for recipes and food/cooking tips and ideas. See more ideas like this and lots of quick and healthy recipes over at Modern Mommy's Kitchen!