Tara called one night while I was watching Ace of Cakes (www.charmcitycakes.com) to tell me to be thinking about Hunter's birthday cake. They were planning a "wheels" theme so all the little tykes could bring their Big Wheels or trikes, or skateboards or bicycles to this little area at their local park and "wheel around." The party would culminate in a visit to the local fire house situated near the park where the firemen had told her the kids could climb around on a fire truck – great photo opp!
Duff and the Charm City Cakes team in Boston were doing a fire engine that night for a local benefit. It seemed a "God-moment." Inspiration filled the room with the sound of angels. I would create for Hunter Magoo a fire truck cake.
By the end of the show I was freaked out. The one they had done was so detailed, took so many hours and people that I was afraid to try. But Stormie said we could, so we did. Thank goodness my husband helped!
It was nothing like Duff's, and in fact, if you looked at it head-on from the front, it looked like it was squealing into an emergency scene in a cartoonish way. Here is what Stormie and I came up with: 4 Duncan Hines Chocolate Butter Cake mixes (made with real butter) to which I added pudding, a simple syrup moistening, and filled with creamy chocolate fudge. The finished size was 6"w x 23 1/2"l x maybe 7 1/2" high.
We used about 10 pounds of almond-infused buttercream and 3 containers of red food color (2 gel by Wilton, 1 squeezee bottle because I feared it wasn't red enough). We made hoses out of the moldable pastillage (which dries harder than the Rocky Mountains). The tires were Entemann's chocolate cake donuts. The "lights" were M & Ms, and Dots.
I made a royal icing 3-D laddar, but it was too delicate and kept breaking. So we just piped on the rest of the decorations. It was heavier than a heart attack. We placed the actual cake on raised, foil-covered masonite, cut to size. We displayed the whole on a scrap of particle board that we painted black to resemble a black-top parking lot, and then I painted yellow "parking lines" on it. This "inspiration" happened literally less than an hour before leaving the house. If I'd had it sooner, I'd have made pastillage "cement" parking barriers and some green scaping with icing and tinted sugar. There also would have been a molded fire hydrant and a Dalmation or two.
Hunter got the chocolate fire truck cake he wanted and I think he liked it because his mom told me that yesterday after his nap, she walked in to find him naked on the kitchen table, quietly and contentedly eating leftover cake like, "This is the life."
Cake questions?…Jeanie
NOTE: Hunter is peering over the table on the top photo.
Can I just say…heaviest stinkin cake in the entire world!!! I think the donut wheels were my favorite, and YUMMY…good idea dad! And great job on the cake momma, I didn't help much with this one because I was being lazy:)
Yes, the cake was delicious! Even now, Gavin and Guini are standing on either side of me pretending to 'eat' the cake off the computer screen. And Gavin is telling me all about Hunter's naked snack-time – as told to Gavin by Aunt Tara;o) He gets a kick out of it!
That is the coolest thing ever!
Amazingly cool. My hubby was a pastry chef in a former life (and did many things right up there with Ace of Cakes and Co.), so I fancy myself a little bit of an expert in this arena… and can I just say? You are pretty doggone talented. Nice job. LOVE the Fire Engine, I bet Hunter thought it was the grandest thing he'd ever seen. I love the love you put into these things.
Jeanie….I am so impressed. As much as I love to bake, I have never attempted cakes like these. You are amazing. I did make one wedding cake, like a fool, since I had never done one before. I had to transport the 3 tiered cake and 4 decorated sheet cakes in the back of my van to the church on the hottest, most humid day of the entire year. I sweated buckets the whole way. What was I thinking? I was a mess…the cakes, surprisingly, looked much better.
Jeanie, do your talents ever end? What a cool, awesome birthday cake. I know Hunter must of loved it, what little boy (or big boy) wouldn't. Happy Birthday to sweet, little Hunter.
WOW Jeanie! Its awsome! You are the queen of cakes!
I love the cake. My husand is graduationg from the fire academy this weekend and I would love to make this cake. How did you measeure the truck? What size cake pan did you use? The middle white part, is that cake?
Jennifer, I sent you an email but please let me know if you have any other questions! :)
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