Racetrack Birthday Cake - Tutorial Tuesday

This cake was a hit with my little birthday man and his friends. I think because it turned out to be so large and the fact that toy cars could be driven around it. Francesco Bernoulli and Tow Mater both made an appearance at different stages of the day and then we misplaced Lightning when it came time to light the candles Children had to restrain themselves from pulling out the fun flag picks they were just so tempting. Here is how I did it...

To achieve the tall oval I baked two 8" round cakes and two 8" square mud cakes as they carve nicely. Trim the domes off then slice the circles in half across the diameter to become the race track ends. Stick the base cakes to the board and to each other with some buttercream. Mine is peachy coloured because I used a few teaspoons of passionfruit flavacol and it was a yummy fruity hit. Roughly carve out the grandstand top and sides and arrange on top of a layer of buttercream as pictured. Once you get to this stage you can use a small serrated knife to even up the grandstand area. Then coat the whole cake with a layer of buttercream.    

Roll out white fondant into a roughly oval shape that is 20" long and ease it into place. Use a cutter wheel to run around the top edge and make it neat. Smear crisco around the insides where you would like the grandstand 'crowd' to be.

Roll long strips of red fondant to wrap all the way around the cake. I did this in two pieces and kept the joins at the back. Butt it up against the white fondant at the top then moisten the join with a little sugar glue then adhere a ribbon of yellow fondant on top. Repeat around the bottom where the red joins the board.

Tip 100s and 1000s sprinkles onto the crisco-covered grandstand area. Brush up any extra that roll down and re-sprinkle to fill in any gaps. It helps to hold the cake on a slight angle for this step. Then roll out black fondant and use your cutting wheel again to freehand shape an oval with a slice up the middle to become the middle of the racetrack.

Ease it into place at the base of the cavity and leave a center strip empty to pipe with green grass made from green coloured royal icing. Complete the board with the child's name in leftover yellow fondant lettering and pipe some more grass beneath to 'ground' it.

Racing Fever Party - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Racing Fever hit our house last weekend with a little man turning 4. In the spirit of the party he asked to be called 'Throttle' for the afternoon! Kids had a sausage sizzle and races on trikes before hitting the sweet treats table...

Cupcakes in finish-line themed gingham black & white cases iced with Lightning McQueen and Mater sugar decorations and international racing flag picks went down well.

These racy fruit cars were made by a dedicated Nana. She dipped the cored apple wedges in lemon juice and skewered two toothpick axles with halved grapes as wheels. Brooom brooom!

I made this chocolate brownies ahead of time and froze it until the day before the party. Cut into fingers with a few drops of icing and colour-selective smarties later we had instant tasty traffic light fingers. My kids loved helping to assemble these.

Racing car chocolates were made with melted milkybar chocolate in an 8-piece mould. Racing features were painted on with a red clicktwist brush. An even easier option would be to use bright candy melts in either blue, green, orange, red, lime or yellow to match your party colours. 

These racing teddies are always a hit. This time we used tasty pineapple lumps for the body of the cars and used a little leftover chocolate icing to stick on mini m&m wheels and candy teddies. A nice size for little hands to enjoy!

  

As a take home gift I made towtruck Mater cookies with a cookie cutter and embosser set. Packaged up in favour bags they looked really neat and the kids could all identify this hero character instantly! 

I baked and cooled chocolate cookies, cut and embossed fondant shapes then adhered them to the cookies with sugar glue. Once the fondant had hardened overnight they were detailed with a black click twist brush on the wheels, a green food pen for his eyes, a pearl white click twist brush for his teeth (and importantly) only one headlight, a red click twist brush for his tongue and a dark gold click twist brush for some random rusty spots. 

Lastly here is my skite photo. Could this little man be any cuter!? Watch out for a tutorial on his Race Track cake to be added to the blog shortly.

Chocolate Moulds Make Decorating Easy - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Working this past year at Kiwicakes I've been amazed at the selection of literally hundreds of chocolate moulds available in NZ. They really are such a simple way to mass-produce technically perfect mini decorations. Some moulds even create stunning 3D objects. 

Some of my earlier blogs using chocolate moulds include snowflakes, surprise boxes, hairdressing set, lollipops and chocolate bars. Read up for tips on melting and setting.

These racing cars were made from black and blue candy melts. Imagine the delight on the faces of little people given one of these to eat!

These cowboy boots look quite different depending on whether you make them light with white candy melts or in a darker shade. They would make neat themed party cupcake toppers or on a farming or western style cake.

I painted accents on the moulded chocolate shapes using various shades of Metallic Food Paint. There are over 20 colours available in bright hues, such as spring green and royal blue.

Next time consider using moulded chocolate in your cake decorating project!