When my husband asked me if I’d be willing to make a cake for Poppy’s surprise 80th birthday party, it didn’t take long before I had pictures and ideas running through my head. And once I had it set in my mind that it would be a fire truck cake, there was no way I was going to let them bring in some store-bought cake for Poppy’s big birthday party.
The only challenge that lay ahead was in figuring out just how in the hell I was going to pull this off.
It involved sculpting, people. And measuring. And fondant pieces and red icing. Red, which is a freaking bear of a color to make. Oh, and a TON of icing. Like, 5 batches worth. And um, to top it all off, I had to figure out a way to make this cake to serve 80 people.
I can say now: mission accomplished. (Thank you, baby Jesus.)
As with any cake project I’ve taken on, I started in Google Images to find photos for inspiration. It was a little bit difficult to find something that fit my own vision, but I felt like I really needed something to go on to help me with this monstrous task. Thankfully, I eventually found Julie at Peanut Butter & Julie. She did a really cute fire truck cake that pretty closely fit what I was picturing in my head. And, even better, she was super helpful in answering questions for me, too. So big thanks go to Julie.
Still, I found that with many parts of this project, I really just had to figure it out as I went along. Thankfully, it all ended up working out for me. But it was a lot of work. So much work. I literally worked on some aspect of this thing every night this past week, starting on Monday. Before I even started, I made a “schedule” of tasks for each night, doing what I could in advance.
And it’s done! It’s DONE. So pardon me while I share a bunch more photos. I just can’t resist. (I’ll also share some more info, too, for those of you who may stumble across this post doing your own Google searches for “fire truck cakes.”)
The cake itself is constructed from four half-sheet cakes. I used a regular cake recipe (red velvet–I thought the color was really appropriate for a fire truck!) in each one, so the cakes were pretty thin. I found it was easier to work with thin layers because of the sculpting/shaping I decided to go with in the middle (with the varying heights). I filled the cake with buttercream icing between each layer, and it’s frosted with buttercream as well.
The tires are mini chocolate donuts, and the lights are Jolly Ranchers. The ladders and the hose are made out of marshmallow fondant. The ladders are hanging on the sides of the truck using pretzel sticks as hooks. Everything else is buttercream. I “dirty iced” the whole cake, then covered it using a medium star tip.
I sculpted the fire hydrant out of fondant and let it dry out in the open for several days. The hose and water are also made of marshmallow fondant. The writing is in buttercream.
The cake board is a 2’x2′ piece of plywood that we got at Home Depot. I covered it in black fabric (thanks again for the tip, Julie). The cake itself is sitting on a cakeboard that I cut to the exact size of the cake. When I first set the cake on it, there were little edges of the cake board showing, but as I iced and decorated, it was easy to cover up the edges of the cake board so it wasn’t visible. It looked like the cake was sitting directly on the fabric.
I’m worried that the cake might not feed everybody at the party, so this is my solution. I made a batch of vanilla cupcakes (24 of them), and topped them to look like fire. The icing is yellow/orange buttercream, and the flames are made out of candy melts. I printed out a picture of a clipart flame, and traced it a bunch of times to make the candy topper for each cupcake.
Happy 80th Birthday, Sibby. :) I should’ve explained the significance of the fire truck–Poppy has been a volunteer firefighter for many, many years. Of course, he can no longer do any of the actual firefighting work, but he’s still heavily involved in the fire company. I’d say the majority of the attendees at the party are going to be his buddies from the firehouse. It seemed only appropriate to honor Poppy and all of his friends.
I can’t wait to show off this monster at the party tonight!
59 Responses to Fire Truck Cake & Fire Cupcakes
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About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
Your cake is so impressive! Well done, bet he loved it!
That. Is. Amazing!
Looks totally amazing! GREAT job!
Wow! You did a great job!
Heather – it is amazing! Great job! WOW!!!
Holy CRAP! Heather, that rocks!
your cake is awesome! :) I so want to try it :)
This looks amazing, great job!
I am a volunteer firefighter and I am in LOVE with this cake and cupcakes! You have so much talent!!!
that is FANTASTIC!!!!!
Um, amazing!
Thanks, everyone! I appreciate all of the nice comments. :)
You are so talented, Heather. Your cakes never cease to amaze me!
This cake looks amazing!!
OMG that is so freaking cute. Very impressive!! I would love to be able to make a cake like that. And the cupcakes are just perfect. Nice work!
I am so impressed!! I am going to Micheals tomorrow and sign up for classes. My boyfriend is a fire fighter and I would love nothing more than to be able to make this cake for him in September for his Birthday!! If you can email me any helpful tips my email is hollieblair@yahoo.com. I love your work!!!!!!
OMG! I love the flame cupcakes! Great cake and party too! and congrats on your pregnancy! (I am reading your whole blog now lol…)
Kim @ http://frostmeblog.blogspot.com
party inspiration
Hello,
I am so going to do this cake in September. I have done Micky Mouse, Thomas the Train, Nemo, and now this one. I am an amature to say the least but love doing this for my kids. My son will be 4 and LOVES firetrucks I think we have 5-6 at our house. Anyway I can handle most of what you describe the only thing I was curious about was how you did the flames on the cupcakes…I really want to do these also and would love if you can send me an email at mhalsing@sbcglobal.net with instructions and directions on how to make them. So far your cake is the best I have been able to find on the web. Great Job!!
Hi Heather. Love the fire truck and cupcakes! My husband is also a firefighter, and our soon to be 4yo son is a fanatic about all things fire related. I’d like to try and make the cupcakes with the flames. Could you email me directions/recipe on how you did that? Thanks!
Amy Fox
brdxracer@q.com
Hi Amy–
I explained in the post how I did the flames. I found a picture of a flame, printed it out, and traced them onto wax paper using candy melts. Beyond that, there are no “directions.”
Good luck!
Heather
Impressive! Saved pics of your amazin work so that I can attempt to create something so great for my son .. he is 18 months old and mickey mouse was my first cake ever for his 1st birthday.. since his dad is a fireman I’m guessing this request will eventually come :) thanks for sharing with us all to see!!
Just found this – umm.. amazing!
I’ve never really done any specialty cakes (or cupcakes) before, so when you say you traced the clipart of the flame.. do you mean you melted the candymelts, put them in a baggy and squeezed them over the clipart like you would do with frosting? Did you put it on wax paper or something? And how are they so perfectly flat? Does the candy just harden that way?
thanks in advance!
-Tiff
tcoupons at gmail.com
This is exactly what I’m looking for and plan to make next week. However, while you provide the pan size, you didn’t identify the actual size of the shapes – which would really be helpful.
You did an AMAZING job – I can’t wait to try and tackle. And yes, it would also be helpful to know how you did the “flames” on the cupcakes
Sorry I didn’t credit your adorable cupcakes on my blog… I’m not sure if I forgot or what – I’m usually pretty good at that.
Anyway – my inspiration source is now linked up. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, and sorry for any hurt feelings!
Thanks, Tiff! :)
Tiff–I know I am super late in responding to this (sorry). But yes, that is exactly what I mean! I laid out some wax paper, put the clip art print out underneath, and then squeezed the melted candy out to trace the flames. The reason they are so flat is because that is the side of the shape that dried against the paper. The other side (that I put up against the frosting) was a bit more textured/bumpy.
K–I’m sorry, this was over a year ago, I have no idea what size the actual pieces were. This can vary depending on how big you’d like your cake to be. Once you have all of the cakes baked and you’re “building,” it’s pretty easy to figure out what to do. I just made it all up as I went along, cutting them to the size that I thought looked best, so I didn’t stop to measure anything. Good luck!
My 1 year old is having a Firetruck themed Birthday party this weekend! I attempted to practice this cake a few weeks ago and it wasn’t too hard to make! Going to make another this weekend, and also attempt the cupcakes! This is way too cute! Too bad you can’t make the cakes and mail them out :)
Hi Im about to make an attempt to make this for my sons 2nd birthday. Any tips you could send would be awesome thanks nikki_knz@hotmail.com love your work!
Do you remember which food coloring you used, I know how hard it is to get butter cream to be fire engine red and not pinkish? Please let me know.
Yes please Heather, how did you get the red not to be “pinkish”as is often the case…and just loved the cupcakes and “flames”.
The answer to the question about the food coloring is that I used a TON of it. I’m not kidding–a ridiculous amount. I want to say it ended up being like two entire jars of the Wilton colors. I used the “No-Taste Red” as much as possible so as to hopefully not alter the taste of the frosting (and it seemed to work) and used the regular red as well. I just added more and more and more until it started to get dark. Then, I let it sit for 1-2 days, as the color gets darker over time.
I’ve also heard great things about Americolor food colorings. Supposedly, their red and black colors are amazing, as they only take a few drops to get really vibrant shades. If I had to do a cake like this again in the future, I would probably try those–but you have to plan ahead, because (at least for me) they’re not available locally and need to be bought online. Check out Amazon.com.
Good luck!
OMG you just saved my life. My sister-in-law has asked me to make a firetruck cake for my nephew’s 2nd birthday. I needed inspiration and your cake just did. So beautiful and so impressive! Thanks for sharing the photos and the tips. Don’t be surprised if I ask you questions along the way. I have to make the cake this week. Gulp! Wish me luck.
I am so glad I found this! My bf is a firefighter and I wanted to make him a fun cake/cupcakes as opposed to just my “usual” stuff! Thank you so much! Its a beautiful cake!
I’ve had this post saved in my browser for almost a year. I’m making this cake x 2 in Feb. My hubby is graduating the fire academy and our first son is turning one a few weeks later. I’ll be making the full size version for the hubby’s grad party and a mini version for the kiddo’s smash cake and then cupcakes for the guests. I am so excited and intimidated! Your work is amazing. I hope to be posting pics on my blog and linking up to the inspiration! Thanks!
Love the cake!! My question is what did you use to hold the cake up so you could attach wheels?
Love your cake! One question though..what type of frosting did you use, and did you need to refrigerate it of it was buttercream. I’ve used the premade wilton frosting and it doesn’t taste all that good, but it doesn’t need to be refrigerated.
Hi Carrie, I used buttercream. Buttercream doesn’t have to be refrigerated unless you use milk, which you don’t have to–just use water to thin it out instead. Of course, if I was making it more than a day in advance, I would refrigerate it (and did, in this case) just to keep it as fresh as possible, but again, it doesn’t NEED to be refrigerated.
How did you do the icing on the cupcakes? What tip did you use and how did you make it yellow and orange?
Heather, How did you make the yellow and orange color? I would like to make these for my sons birthday in a couple of months. Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, I’m not sure what you mean? I used Wilton gel colors to dye the icing yellow and orange.
Did you mix them together in the icing? Yours came out so beautifully so I was just wondering how you got it to come out that way web you iced the cupcakes. It’s almost like a yellow with a hint of orange on the edge. It really looks good.
I think I put two colors in the pastry bag at the same time so it would be a little bit of a swirl effect.
Thank you. One more question, on the flames what did you use to trace the flames on the candy melts?
A squeeze bottle!
Awesome job!!! I love the fact that most of it is frosting. I have done a lot of fondant 3D cakes. Most customers prefer frosting. This is simply fantastic. :) Laura
Do you have a step by step on how you did the flames? I have never used candy melts or anything. So, when you say you printed out a flame and traced it I am not sure how you got the candy to look like that…did you put the melts on the paper itself? So confused. ha
Hi Amy! No, I’m sorry, I don’t have a step-by-step tutorial or anything. I used red, orange and yellow candy melts and squeeze bottles. I melted the candy melts, poured the melted candy into the squeeze bottles, then traced the clipart flame that I printed out. And no, I didn’t put the melts on the paper itself—I put the paper under wax paper and traced on that. I let the candy melts harden again and they were good to go. Hope that helps!
Thank you! After I wrote this, I thought “I bet she put it on wax paper”. Ha. Thank you again!
I was looking for decorations for a Hot Wheels themed party and came across a link to your fire truck and flame cupcakes. AMAZING!!!! I had found some other flame cupcakes – red, orange, and yellow buttercream frosting piped from same bag so you get the multi-color swirl effect, but ‘m thinking of changing my mind and try your candy melt flames instead. So cool err, I mean HOT! Thank you for the inspiration!
Awesome cake , planning to make this one for my sons birthday next month. One question did you assemble the entire cake and then do the star piping? Was just wondering how clean the star piping looks in the crevices in the centre.
Yes, the cakes get carved and assembled, then crumb coated, then covered with stars.
Thanks for the prompt reply. But how did the star nozzle make its way through in the centre depression- I hope my question is clear
I loaded up to bag with icing so that the bag was very “tall” and then started in the crevices.
Thanks again bit difficult to imagine as it looks narrow though will try
Are the windows white buttercream?
Yes
Could you send me the recipe? I love this!
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Will it be ok if I use a 12X18 cake pan?