One of the most popular novelty birthday cake themes for kids (big and little) is a car cake. Whether they’re older, avid car fans, or just enjoy pushing toy cars across the floor, most men will enjoy a car-themed cake at some point in their life. Here are some tips on how to make a car cake they’ll love.

Will it be 2D or 3D car cake?

There are many different ways to approach making this type of cake, and the first decision is whether it will be 2D or 3D. Essentially, it will depend on your level of skill and confidence which is the best way. If you’re not too sure, a 2D cake will be the best way to go. You’ll get a great result, and next time you’ll be ready to tackle something a little more complex.

3D cakes are for the more experienced, though with careful planning, even the novice home baker can produce a spectacular 3D cake.

2D car cake

For a 2D car cake, you can simply buy or bake a cake slab and decorate it in a variety of ways. There are many different ways to do this and some suggestions include:

  • Create a car track (liquorice strips are good for this) and place cars etc. around the track. Crush some plain chocolate chip cookies to make ‘dirt’ and mix desiccated coconut with green food coloring to make grass.

  • Select a particular car style or design and find a suitable image. Print the image and draw an outline directly on top of the cake. Use colored icing, lollipops, and candy to decorate the design.

  • Make it super easy and buy some toy cars as cake toppers. Line them up on a race track or spread them out. There are many other fantastic cake toppers and toys that can be used in this way to create your desired theme.

3D car cake

While a 2D cake is a great place to start, building a 3D car cake is a lot of fun and well worth the little extra effort it takes to build it. To build a 3D cake, you need to start with a cake slab and ‘carve’ and ‘shape’ the cake with a design.

It is important to plan out the final cake design before attempting to cut it. This is to ensure there is enough cake to finish the job and also helps make the whole process less stressful.

Once the basic outline of the cake is built, it is necessary to freeze and decorate the cake. It’s a good idea to “crumb coat” the cake first, which means applying a simple frosting all over to keep crumbs in check. Then buttercream or fondant icing can be used as needed.

It is possible to create the features of the cake in several ways. First, simply use cake cutouts to cut out additional features like wheels, spoilers, and antennas. Another option is to use cookies (wheels), candies, or other decorations to add features to the cake. And finally, the fondant can be colored and cut as needed to add the finishing touches.

It’s a good idea when building a 3D car cake to think about the dashboard or cake stand as well. This can also be decorated and an obvious addition for a car is a road, race track or dirt (depending on the cake). This is the final touch that will complete the presentation of the cake very well.

Choosing a car cake is a great idea for any man (and even some women!). Depending on your level of skill and confidence, the first step is to decide whether you’ll go for a 2D or 3D version. Either way, you’ll have a sure winner with the boys.