Introducing Ligh-ming The Queen!!!

This past year Owen discovered his new favorite love (besides Mickey, of course!)....CARS (The Movie). His favorite is the main race car character, Lightning McQueen aka Lighming The Queen. So this year when it came time to create his fabulous mommy-made birthday cake, his choice of cake was no surprise....he wanted Lighming The Queen...and he wanted ORANGE cake. Yes, orange. His favorite color.

I researched how to even begin to create a car cake, and thanks to the internet, found some great pointers. Now, I know I could have done it the easy way and made a track out of sheet cake and put some cars on it, but that's not how this cake momma rolls. Nope, I gotta do it big.

This year I did remember to take pictures along the way so document to process...here are just a few...


I started by baking 2 sheet cakes the day before decorating so I could freeze them overnight. They are much easier to cut and sculpt when frozen. And yes..I dyed the batter orange just as Owen requested.

I then got to cutting and creating the car shape. YIKES! (I will say that this one turned out way better than my prototype from weeks before!) After getting the shape just right, I iced it with white frosting to get the base coat...then back into the freezer for a bit to harden. (That pic won't upload for some reason, but trust me, that's what I did ;-) ) This was the part when I asked Owen "Is it looking like your Car Movie yet?" His answer: "Not yet!!" Thanks son.

I used about 3 bottles of red food coloring to get the icing the perfect bright red color...then I was ready to tackle the cake!
I iced it all bright red, then again, back into the freezer. Once good and cold I was able to smooth it out to make the nice shiney finish. No fondit here folks!

Whew...it took several hours to get to this part, and I hadn't even started the features and real decorating that would make Lightning say KA-CHOW!

I used fondit for the windows and lightning stripes on the sides. M&M's for the eyes, hubcaps, and brake lights...Chocolate mini donuts for tires...Melted chocolate chips for the Rust-eze sticker on the front. I murdered a bag of chocolate goldfish in the blender to make dirt, and colored coconut with green food coloring for the grass.


I did the final set up there at the party...I think it turned out FABULOUS! I was very impressed with myself. And glad that I only have (almost) 2 kids so I only have to do this twice a year! It took a very long time, but it was all worth it. Owen loved it and it was exactly what he asked for. In fact, he is still talking about it. When we say we will do anything to make our kids happy, we moms really mean it!





I love you kid! Happy, Happy 3rd Birthday!