Disney Cars Cake For Collin!

by Brianne Duncan
(Barron, Wisconsin, USA)

My Disney Cars Cake For Colin!

Cake decorating has been handed down to me from my grandmother. Grandma, aka "Bama," made us beautiful decorated cakes for birthdays, Easter, Valentine's day...and now it is a tradition I am continuing with my children. There is just something special about a homemade decorated cake for your birthday.

Our son, Collin, was born on my birthday two years ago. (Dad is happy he only has one birthday to remember!) About three months before his second birthday, which was this past December, we rented the Disney movie "Cars" from the library. Well, needless to say, we watched that movie at least once a day, for a full two months. We finally had to return the movie to the library but grandma and grandpa just had to buy if for Collin!

Well, I knew exactly what birthday design to make him! I found a Lightning McQueen shaped pan. I ordered it, it came, but was rather small for almost 30 guests at the birthday party. I needed more !

I decided upon making a sheet for the car-shaped cake to sit on. I made a White Texas Sheet with raspberry filling. Lightning McQueen was made out of Sour Cream Chocolate. White cake was a must because we had a non-chocolate eater coming to the party! (Who doesn't like chocolate? CRAZY!!!)

Some Cake Decorating Ideas

After I had the sheet cake put together, I covered with white buttercream frosting. Then I made a grid from one inch squares/strips to get a checker design. I then piped in black frosting, smoothed the squares out so the white sheet cake looked like a race tracks checkered flag.

Next, I positioned the Lightning McQueen and started decorating! What I found most fun was doing the tires on the car. I took a #16 star tip and used a continual stream and went around in an oval until I had the whole tire filled in. It looked just like the tread on a tire!

I also wanted the number 95 variegated, since this is how Lightning's number is on the movie. I first filled in the orange to the left of the number. Then I got the idea to take most of the remaining orange in the bag, out and put some yellow in. I pushed everything down, squeezed a little out until I had a variegated color and made the number in stars! It turned out great!

I Finished off with shelling around the bottom of Lightning McQueen and also around the bottom of the sheet cake. It was now complete with a Lightning McQueen Piston Cup candle! SUCCESS! Or should I say, CA-CHOW!!! (Lightning McQueens favorite saying!)

The Recipes

White Texas Sheet Cake recipe (as found in my Basics and More cookbook on page 315)

1 cup butter
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cups flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sour milk or sour cream (I use sour milk)
1 tsp. baking soda

Heat butter and water until butter melts. Add sugar, salt, and flour. Mix well. Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Pour into a greased 15X10 pan. (I also floured my pan so it was easy to remove.) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
(I made two full recipes for a two layer cake that was 15X10. It is a heavier cake but very good tasting, especially with raspberry filling!)

For the raspberry filling I used a jelled raspberry filling that I had found at the whole foods pantry. I believe it is mainly used for pastries. But worked well for this layered cake.

The sour cream chocolate cake is what Bama always made her decorated cakes out of so that is what I use too! Plus it is a cake that stays so very moist and is easy to work with.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup hot water
2 eggs
2 cups flour

Mix sugar and sour cream. Add coca dissolved in hot water. Add eggs, flour and soda. Mix together well. Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until done.
(One recipe usually is enough for a a small to medium size shaped cake pan. I have had to double this to fill a little larger shaped pan.)

A Cake Board Tip!

I use a piece of smooth wood, at least 1/2 inch think, covered in contact paper as my board for my decorated birthday cakes. It slides easy into a large cake box. You can kind of see the board that this cake is one.

Here is a video link to singing happy birthday to Collin and him blowing out his candles.

This article was printed from Wedding-Cakes-For-You.com

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