How to make a race car birthday cake with doughnuts.
Download the template for this cake now!
Serves 12
Ingredients:
- 1 (5 by 9-inch) loaf cake, from box mix
- 10 Tootsie Rolls
- 1 can (16 oz) vanilla frosting
- Blue food coloring
- 1 cup dark chocolate frosting
- 4 Oreos
- 1 tube (4.25 oz) red decorating icing
- 4 mini-chocolate-frosted doughnuts
- 1 thin, small bar of chocolate
- 2 red M&M’s
- 2 yellow M&M’s
- 2 red M&M’s Minis
- 2 yellow M&M’s Minis
- 2 cups shredded coconut, tinted green, optional
- 1 ½ cups black decorating sugar, optional
- White licorice pastels (Good & Plenty), optional
What you’ll need:
- A serving platter
- A bread knife
- A 2 ½-inch round cookie cutter or juice glass
- A paring knife
- 2 resealable sandwich-size plastic bags (Ziploc)
Trimming the cake:
- Place the loaf cake on a work surface with the flat side on the surface. Cut the cake into the shape of the race car, as pictured in the template below.
- Use a 2 ½-inch round cookie cutter or the mouth of a juice glass to cut into the base of the cake about ¾-inch deep to make space for the car’s wheels.
Preparing the decorations:
- Unwrap the Tootsie Rolls and microwave for no more than 3 seconds to soften. Press 3 of them together and roll out into a 2 by 4 ½-inch rectangle, about 1/8-inch thick. Trim the flattened chews with a knife into trapezoidal shapes for the front and rear windows. (The windows will be about 4 inches wide at the base, and 3 inches wide at the top, and 2 inches high.)
- Repeat with the remaining 4 chews for the side windows. (The windows will be about 2 ½ inches wide at the base, 2 inches wide at the top and 1 ¾ inches tall.)
Frosting the cake:
- Spoon ¼ cup of the vanilla frosting into a resealable plastic bag.
- Spoon the dark chocolate frosting into a resealable plastic bag.
- Add enough food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting to tint it blue.
- Place the four Oreos on a serving platter to serve as pedestals for the car’s body. Place the cake on top of the Oreos.
- Spread the blue frosting all over the top and sides of cake except for the wheel openings and make smooth.
To complete the decoration:
- Press the front, rear and side Tootsie Roll windows onto the car’s body.
- Snip a small (1/8-inch) corner from each bag of chocolate and vanilla frosting.
- Pipe a line of chocolate frosting around the windows.
- Using the red decorating icing, pipe decorative stripes on the front and top of the car.
- Press the small chocolate bar into the rear of the cake for the car’s spoiler.
- Use the vanilla frosting to pipe a number onto the hood and doors of the car.
- Pipe white dots of frosting in the front and rear of cake. Attach the yellow M&M’s as the headlights and the red M&M’s as the tail lights.
- Pipe some chocolate frosting into the wheel openings. Press the doughnuts into the openings. Pipe a decorative edge around the tire with chocolate frosting. Pipe some chocolate frosting into the doughnut holes. Pipe chocolate frosting lines onto the front and rear of the car.
- Decorate the platter with the green coconut for the grass. Sprinkle the black decorating sugar and white Good & Plenty down the length of the platter for the road.