Cake advice needed please.

[CwtchyBlueMama]

DS will be 4 this Summer & he loves mini cars,so i was going to make him a cake shaped like a mini for his birthday.

Does anyone have any advice or tips to pass on please?

I was going to make it in a 10" cake tin & just add on the 'roof' part from a separate cake.

I am wanting advice really on the shaping part & using royal icing.

Thanks in advance.

I always make cakes for DD's, it's usually just a basic sponge, with jam or nutella and the middle.

I make the cake a day before I need to shape it, I have never used royal icing, always the type you can colour and roll ( a bit like plasticine).

Brush the cake with apricot glaze to help the icing to stick, and any other bits of icing that are added on top of the body of the car, can then be stuck on using a small amount of water as the "glue".

Licquorice pinwheels are fab as the wheels, and when I have made a car I used foil shapes for the windows, and finish the edges with black writing icing.

Hope this help, and have fun.

Thanks thats great advice,i know the type of icing you mean,they sell it in blocks at my local cake supply shop.

Do you think i would be best just buying a block of white & then colouring it myself or buying in pre-coloured blocks?

Great idea about using licquorice pinwheels for the wheels.

Hi there,
I would second the idea of using sugarpaste instead of royal icing.
and for your first time/couple of times I would recommend buying the colour you need. colours like red and dark blue and black are a nightmare to colour up yourself even if you have had ages of practice. Yellow is easy as is green if those were the colours you were favoring.

I use buttercream round the cake to stick the icing to the cake, mainly because I ahve already made up the buttercream for the filling so just use the spare to smoothly coat the sponge.

the little extras like headlights and window wipers and wing mirrors make a huge difference to the feel of the cake if you feel you want to go in that direction.

if you are using sugarpaste, buy some black and put a sausage shaped loop round the bottom of the cake to lift it off the board a little it will make it feel like it is really standing on the wheels (even if you have used the liquorice ones)

Enjoy.. Tis so much fun, and just like play doh

I usually just buy white and colour it myself, but you could buy the main car colour, to save the faff. Then a block of white for any other coloured bits.

Any that isn't used can be wrapped in cling film and lasts for ages.

have you seen some of the pics on google??

this one caught my eye, it is very simple and yet effective.

I have done sports cars before but would love to do something like this or a beetle.

That is exactly the cake i want to make!!

I will take your advice & use the pre-coloured,i made a lightning mcqueen cake last yr for him but that was iced in all buttercream so it was a bit easier,also it was a case of follow the shapes as i used a pre shaped cake tin.

What sort of knife do you use to shape the car?

Am getting excited now

I use a bread knife here is a photo of the lightening McQueen cake I did last year it was loads of fun to make

Your cakes are amazing!!