Lightning McQueen

The little boy who introduced Thomas the Train to my Jake has a new toy interest - Lightning McQueen from Disney's Cars. Jake's cousin, Justin turns 4 and luckily for his mum, she did not have to endure another year of Thomas birthday party. So Aunty Debbie was tasked with baking a Lightning McQueen cake!

Before I started work, I contacted my baker friend Dawn who made a Lightning McQueen cake some months back. Now if you remember, Dawn is my fellow baker mum who helped me on the Penguin cake last year. Dawn's cake decoration skills is easily the very best that I've seen anywhere. Pure perfection. I had hoped some tips from her would help me along the way. She sent me a step-by-step via WhatsApp from Shanghai where she is based, thank you so much Dawn. Here's a peek at her amazing work... check out the contours!

A perfect Lightning McQueen by Dawn

So I went about building this cake. The baking part was easy - a moist chocolate cake with Oreo cream cheese filing. I had to stop myself from eating the bits that were carved out while making this cake! 

Yummy undercarriage

Rough outline of McQueen covered in fudge

I tried so hard to follow the tips and advice given for this cake. It was a challenge carving a car out of a block of cake, which was recommended. I found myself piecing together the car for the contours instead. So between meeting the requirements of a moist cake and the details required for the car to take shape, this was my best effort.

Lightning McQueen!

Adding in the details was the real fun part especially the round disc on the bonnet. I used it to imprint the birthday boy's name! 

Here's looking at you kid

Ok so it's not really an accurate shape of Lightning McQueen, mine is more like a family saloon than a sports car but the signature windscreen eyes and engine grille smile did the trick. And not forgetting the lightning stripes on the door!

Vroom!

A Lightning McQueen that he can eat

It made the birthday boy's day and that's all that really matters. Happy Birthday Justin!