There is that one cake, the one that you take an order for and have no idea how you are going to pull it off.
This was the one for me.
A monster truck.
There are plenty of monster truck cakes online, some are pretty good.
Due to the design of them it makes construction a challenge.
My first task was to design an elevated cake " stand" to set the truck on.
I went to Michaels and bought a thick piece of wood and a birch dowel.
Skip this step, I didn't use them.
Plan B
Buy a piece of foam core , a cake board and Wilton wood dowels.
For the cake I used the Wilton Cruiser Pan.
I never use character pans anymore , but the car ones are great when you don't have time to carve cake.
While my cake was baking I made the tires.
Fortunately there was a tutorial on Jessicakes website which I followed ( for the most part ) and they came out great.
The tires were made of Rice Krispie Treats that I molded in another one of my Wilton pans. I call it my min-bundt pan but I'm quite sure that isn't what Wilton calls it.
It's this one though.
Once they were formed I covered them in buttercream and let that dry a bit.
While that was drying I discovered Jessicakes tutorial and discovered she had better ideas so I grabbed my 4 inch round cookie cutter.
I shaped my tires with the cookie cutter shaving off the sides and making it all nice and even and round.
Once that was done I used a diamond shaped cutter to make tread.
Attach the " v's" to the tires.
Roll out some grey fondant and cut 1 inch circles for wheels. Attach those to the tires with a brush of water.
With a small round icing tip decorate wheels.
Once the cake was cooled I placed it on the cake board and traced it.
Set the cake aside and cut the cake board.
Glue cake to cake board with some buttercream.
I made Grave Digger so I had to build up the back with some cake crumbs mixed with some icing and moulded onto the cake.
Cut out the wheel wells, I used my round cutter at a 45 degree angle to get nice even cut outs.
Ice cake and smooth.
I found an image of the trucks decals and printed that with my edible image printer.
These came out the exact size I needed without any resizing.
I applied these with a brush of corn syrup so they would adhere smooth and firm.
I added some headlights made of fondant and I cut some windows and a windshield freehand out of grey fondant.
Attach to truck with some water.
Ok, so the truck is done, tires are done, that leaves the cake board and the " stand".
I had been dreading this part because I had no idea how I was going to pull it off.
I was planning to use cake scraps to build dirt mounds but of course this was one of those rare occasions that my cakes baked perfectly even. ( I was making another birthday cake and had planned to use those. )
Again, plan B.
I baked one 8 inch layer of chocolate cake to crush to make the dirt mounds.
For the cake board I started by covering it in chocolate buttercream.
To make the supports to elevate the truck I cut the wood dowels 1/4 inch taller than my truck tires and sharpened one end to a point to pierce the cake board.
I used 4, one to hide behind each tire and then I used 1 thin dowel in the middle.
I covered all of these with black fondant to make them blend in.
Mound crushed cake scraps all around the cake board.
To reinforce the cake board the truck is on I cut a rectangle of foam core and covered that in black fondant to make it match as well.
Place cake on that fondant covered foam core and then set on the supports.
Set tires in place and add any details you choose.
I made a flag with a #4 on it because the birthday boy was turning 4.
Challenge complete.
It wasn't quite as difficult as I had imaged it would be and the structure was stable enough to hold it for quite a few hours.
This was the one for me.
A monster truck.
There are plenty of monster truck cakes online, some are pretty good.
Due to the design of them it makes construction a challenge.
My first task was to design an elevated cake " stand" to set the truck on.
I went to Michaels and bought a thick piece of wood and a birch dowel.
Skip this step, I didn't use them.
Plan B
Buy a piece of foam core , a cake board and Wilton wood dowels.
For the cake I used the Wilton Cruiser Pan.
I never use character pans anymore , but the car ones are great when you don't have time to carve cake.
While my cake was baking I made the tires.
Fortunately there was a tutorial on Jessicakes website which I followed ( for the most part ) and they came out great.
The tires were made of Rice Krispie Treats that I molded in another one of my Wilton pans. I call it my min-bundt pan but I'm quite sure that isn't what Wilton calls it.
It's this one though.
Once they were formed I covered them in buttercream and let that dry a bit.
While that was drying I discovered Jessicakes tutorial and discovered she had better ideas so I grabbed my 4 inch round cookie cutter.
I shaped my tires with the cookie cutter shaving off the sides and making it all nice and even and round.
Once that was done I used a diamond shaped cutter to make tread.
Attach the " v's" to the tires.
Cover with black fondant.
Roll out some grey fondant and cut 1 inch circles for wheels. Attach those to the tires with a brush of water.
With a small round icing tip decorate wheels.
Once the cake was cooled I placed it on the cake board and traced it.
Set the cake aside and cut the cake board.
Glue cake to cake board with some buttercream.
I made Grave Digger so I had to build up the back with some cake crumbs mixed with some icing and moulded onto the cake.
Cut out the wheel wells, I used my round cutter at a 45 degree angle to get nice even cut outs.
Ice cake and smooth.
Cover with fondant.
I found an image of the trucks decals and printed that with my edible image printer.
These came out the exact size I needed without any resizing.
I applied these with a brush of corn syrup so they would adhere smooth and firm.
I added some headlights made of fondant and I cut some windows and a windshield freehand out of grey fondant.
Attach to truck with some water.
Ok, so the truck is done, tires are done, that leaves the cake board and the " stand".
I had been dreading this part because I had no idea how I was going to pull it off.
I was planning to use cake scraps to build dirt mounds but of course this was one of those rare occasions that my cakes baked perfectly even. ( I was making another birthday cake and had planned to use those. )
Again, plan B.
I baked one 8 inch layer of chocolate cake to crush to make the dirt mounds.
For the cake board I started by covering it in chocolate buttercream.
To make the supports to elevate the truck I cut the wood dowels 1/4 inch taller than my truck tires and sharpened one end to a point to pierce the cake board.
I used 4, one to hide behind each tire and then I used 1 thin dowel in the middle.
I covered all of these with black fondant to make them blend in.
Mound crushed cake scraps all around the cake board.
To reinforce the cake board the truck is on I cut a rectangle of foam core and covered that in black fondant to make it match as well.
Place cake on that fondant covered foam core and then set on the supports.
Set tires in place and add any details you choose.
I made a flag with a #4 on it because the birthday boy was turning 4.
Challenge complete.
It wasn't quite as difficult as I had imaged it would be and the structure was stable enough to hold it for quite a few hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.