Is there such a thing as an easy to make fire engine birthday cake?

[KhaleesiOfChaos]

Help! My son is getting a proper birthday tea this year for his 4th birthday.

I really really want to make his birthday cake from scratch but the last one I tried to decorate myself was a disaster

There are loads of tutorials online but I don't trust them when they say they're easy! Does anyone have a tried and tested "do-able" version to they can link to or share photos of?

Thank you!

I've not made one (and you may have tried this) but this looks like a doable shape with coloured icing, Oreos and Smarties for the extras.

www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/recipes/fire-engine-12239

"Fire Engine Cake Recipe - BettyCrocker.com" www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/fire-engine-cake/a4c6b0d2-2347-45f2-8327-8ab7e3b328c4

It doesn't look like an amazing finish so an amateur one. It is an American recipie though so might not work. Their flour etc is different and the recipie and baking times will be geared up for that.

Something like this might be easier sweetestmoments.com.sg/products/ckr38-fire-rescue

My son for his 5th birthday wanted a pink cake with a train on it. So I bought a pink birthday cake, drew tracks etc on with an icing pen, and bought a Thomas figurine and put on the tracks. He was delighted, it took me 5 mins and he got to keep the train ! If you feel like cheating……

Yes.

I made one for DS when he was 3.

Made a slab of Madeira cake in a roasting tin, cut it in half and sandwich it together in a brick shape. Cut away part of the top piece to leave the raised cab.
Covered it all in dyed red buttercream
Made a ladder on top out of Matchmakers
Oreos for wheels, with white roll out icing for hub caps (a wine bottle lid is the perfect size)
A blue bobbly liquorice all sort for the blue light. Jelly tots for the other lights.
White roll out icing for the door and Windows and number.
Liquorice wheels for hoses.

Apologies that the photo is upside down, but you get my drift.

Would a train engine do? If so, make it out of two cut up Swiss rolls.
🚂 🚂 🚂 🚂

I've not made this one personally but I have made other bbcgoodfood birthday cakes and they've turned out really well.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/fire-engine-cake

Thank you @BikeRunSki this looks do-able even with my lack of skills

@KhaleesiOfChaos, it was the pinnacle of my birthday cake making. It’s been downhill for the 10 years since.

I did a cake very similar to this-victoria sponge in a large brownie pan, covered in fondant and the fire engine also fondant.

I found a decent size fire engine printable and used that as a guide (cut out the body of the truck, wheels etc to cut round) and put a photo of the birthday child in the cab-they loved it. Also works for diggers, dumpers and trains!

That's brilliant @BikeRunSki

Thank you @Themarvellousmrsm

I have a feeling I made the Betty Crocker one years ago- there was a video tutorial as well. I made it with homemade loaf cakes and buttercream not Betty Crocker ingredients. It worked so well I made it for two birthdays.
My main tip is, whichever recipe you use, you will need a LOT of red food colouring if not using fondant. A whole tub of the colouring paste probably. A bottle of supermarket food dye won’t cut it.
Have fun making it!

It's a bit of a mess but birthday boy loved it.

Thanks all for your suggestions. I went with a Mary berry traybake recipe then took inspiration from @BikeRunSki

@FaintlyMacabre you were right about the food colouring! I bought a tub of ready made frosting then needed 2 tubes of colouring gel. It looks so much brighter in the photo than it does in real life.

Plus I've learnt that shop-bought frosting is disgusting! I had to add loads of icing sugar to thicken it as the food colouring made it very runny.