Recipes and Cooking Ideas for Homemakers and Amateur Cooks
 

Lightning McQueen Birthday Cake

Posted on July 23, 2009
Filed Under Birthday cakes

I made a birthday cake last evening for my friend Renita’s 6-yr-old son, Jordan. His birthday is TODAY! The cake is a Lightning McQueen cake. I was thinking of updating as I make it, but decided not to this time. (That way, I don’t get icing all over my mouse and keyboard. ???? Just kidding, I have to wash my hands to handle my camera anyway.)

Here’s a list of what all I used:
–chocolate cake mix
–store-bought white fondant ($6 at Walmart)
–red, black, yellow, and blue food coloring paste
–buttercream icing (recipe featured in this post, you’ll need to scroll down a little)
–graham cracker crumbs
–small piece of thin cardboard
–small bamboo skewer
–2 toothpicks
–6 candles

It’s all very common/inexpensive things, no molds or anything, so I hope that after you see this cake being made, you can see how easy it is to do one yourself. :)

I started by baking a 9×13 chocolate cake, cooled it and froze it (easier to carve that way), then cut out a section about 11×7 and placed it on the cake board. By the way, the cake board is a piece of foam board cut in half, stacked, and covered with tin foil. Renita gave me that little car to look off of. Very helpful!!!!

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It took awhile to get the fondant red. See that little can of red paste? It was brand new and I used at least 3/4 of it! This is when I was starting to mix it…
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And then I never got a picture of it after it was red. *rolleyes* The way to mix it is to pull it, twist it, knead it, and whatever till it’s all uniformly colored. It’s easy to do swirly designs with fondant too!

Ok, now the carving starts. I took another smaller piece and stacked it on top for the cab. Is it called a cab when it’s a race car? I can’t think of what else to call it. Anyway, the part inside where you sit. This doesn’t look too promising so far, does it?
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Ah, but frosting helps SO much and covers lots of imperfections! Not to imply that there are no imperfections here!!! But at least it looks like now it actually has a chance of becoming a race car.
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Now we roll out the red fondant. By the way, whenever you do cakes, please use concentrated paste, NOT liquid food coloring. Concentrated paste makes the end result such true vivid colors. Sprinkle the table with plenty of powdered sugar. Flatten the fondant a bit and sprinkle powdered sugar on it too, then simply roll it out like you would a pie crust.
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To pick up the fondant, I rolled it around the rolling pin, then unrolled it off of the rolling pin over the car.
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lm7.jpg Kinda blurry, but you get the idea. There was a powdered sugar issue because it was really sugary on the bottom and then when I rolled it up onto the rolling pin, it got sugary on part of the top. I thought, “Oh no! Now what?!” because when I tried to brush it off, it didn’t want to come off!

By patting and tucking, fit the fondant to the shape of the cake. Then, trim off the excess.
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Roll out some white fondant and cut out the windows and the smile. To cut the fondant, I used either a sharp knife, a scissors, or a pastry cutter, whichever seemed like it would work the best for what I was cutting. Pieces of fondant don’t automatically stick… you need to wet the back with water a little bit first, then they’ll stick.
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By the way, remember all that powdered sugar that was on the red when I first put the fondant over the car? The problem took care of itself… the sugar melted or something and dissolved into the fondant. I love when problems take care of themselves like that.

Now we’ve got eyes. I know, one is bigger than the other. Oh well. To make the eyes, I used a small (clean) painbrush and black and blue coloring paste and painted them on.
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Now we’ve got wheels. They are made out of  black and red fondant. To put them on, I cut into the fondant, icing, and cake, making a wheel-shaped hole, then tucked the wheels in. I thought it might add a little character to turn the front wheels to give it a ‘rarin-to-go’ look. ????
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Now we have decals, ‘lettering’ on the tires, and headlights.
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Now with the Rust-eze logo, the spoiler, a flag, and a racetrack, Lightning McQueen is DONE!

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The track is rolled out black fondant. Everything here is completely edible except the bamboo skewer on the flag, a thin piece of cardboard inside the spoiler, the 2 toothpicks under the spoiler, and of course the candles. (The spoiler kept settling instead of staying at the proper angle, so I had to prop it up with toothpicks.)

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Happy birthday, Jordan! Have fun being 6!

Edited to add: Several readers have been inspired to use these instructions and make a Lightning McQueen cake themselves! See their cakes here: Lightning McQueen cakes that readers have made They all did an awesome job! If you want to do it, I’d love to see your cake! :) Email it to kay@kitchenscrapbook.com and I’ll add it to that post!! :)

Edited April 25, 2011: I just made another Lightning McQueen birthday cake last week. It’s posted here: Regan’s Lightning McQueen birthday cake.
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Comments

75 Responses to “Lightning McQueen Birthday Cake”

  1. Christine Martin on July 23rd, 2009 12:36 pm

    You don`t know me but my parents went to church with Shannons parents years ago :) I often check out your recipes and this cake is too cute, my children loved it!! Cody, 7 yrs. wishes you would live close enough to make him one. :) i`m not that talented…keep up the good work!

  2. Freida on July 23rd, 2009 1:44 pm

    You are totally amazing!! I will never cease to be amazed at your decorating skills. Tucker says- She should make me one like that. :) He LOVES anything Lightening McQueen. Good job, lady!

  3. Lisa@The Cutting Edge of Ordinary on July 23rd, 2009 1:54 pm

    Great job! You are so talented. I bet Jordan was one happy little boy!

  4. Shannon on July 23rd, 2009 1:54 pm

    Wow Kay, this is beautiful! You do an unbelievable job. My girls are totally amazed going from one picture to the next!!! They say, “Did you read the instructions? Can you make one like this now?” Noooooooooooooo, your mama is not that talented. :)Good Job!!!

  5. Marissa on July 23rd, 2009 3:20 pm

    My sons are a bit envious of whoever gets this awesome cake……… WOOoooooW!!!

  6. Traci on July 23rd, 2009 5:19 pm

    Shut UP!!! How cute is THAT??? I have got to show this to my friend who’s son is a CARS FREAK!!! Two thumbs up on this one girl!

  7. Katrina on July 23rd, 2009 10:54 pm

    Fabulous job, Kay. I just could not do that! You rock cake decorating!

  8. Marilyn on July 24th, 2009 5:19 am

    Wow! awesome job on decorating the cake, looks great :)

  9. Amber on July 24th, 2009 6:46 am

    Amazing! When looking at the picture on the link on xanga, I thought you set a car on top of a board! Wondering where the cake was… :) Too cute!

  10. Rosanne on July 24th, 2009 7:20 am

    Great job, Kay! I’ve been playin with fondant a little and your instructions were helpful. I haven’t attempted anything like this but maybe I should for Cody’s 6th birthday in Dec. Is the lightning on the side more fondant or just painted?
    Keep up the great work!

  11. Janice Y. on July 24th, 2009 8:06 am

    My son’s reaction, “Man, you should make one!” Love the graham cracker crumb idea for dirt. I’ve tried using nestle’s quik already and it melts soon. I’m guessing Jordan’s mom was happy, too!

  12. Kay on July 24th, 2009 8:22 am

    Rosanne, the lightning is fondant… I made yellow and orange fondant, then pressed them together, twisted them to blend just in the very middle, then rolled it out. The 95’s are also cut out of that. Then, I colored regular icing black and piped around it all.

    To all of you, seriously, if there’s a little boy in your life who’d like this, you really oughta try it! Just plan to take your time and keep tweaking it till it gets right (this took me a little over 4 hours, not counting baking and cooling the cake). And don’t say you couldn’t do it (unless you’ve tried it) because you’ll be surprised how forgiving and imperfection-hiding that the icing is! ????

    …And when you try it, tell me about it and email me a picture! :)

  13. Berneice on July 24th, 2009 9:47 am

    Umm can you ship cakes to Haiti?? :) Landon is having a b-day Sept 2nd and he would love a Lightening Mcqueen cake! :) Good work!!

  14. renita on July 24th, 2009 11:23 am

    Well Kay, we had one very Very VERY happy birthday boy!!! First thing Jordan said was SWEET ~Lightning McQueen!!! He didn’t want to eat it right away. :-)
    Thanks SO much Kay for all your work and fitting it into your schedule! I definitely appreciate it and it’ll be one cake not ever forgotten. I think the other boys were just as excited and slightly jealous. They kept saying what they want for their b-days.

  15. coleensr on July 25th, 2009 5:30 am

    That is so-o-o-o-o impressive!! I made birthday cakes for my children through their 12th birthdays, but mine sure weren’t this nice. I’m sure Jordan was impressed with his mom!!

  16. Liz on July 25th, 2009 3:03 pm

    Wow, impressive! I know you say it’s not that hard, but it looks hard. I ought to try messing with fondant sometime. Never tried it. You’re going to have to start a business soon. Bet you’d be able to make some money that way. Well, until you start counting your time.

  17. Angela on July 26th, 2009 1:47 pm

    Woo-hoo, Kay- that’s awesome! Looks like you have the makings of a business here. =) I enjoy decorating cakes, but I prefer instructions! There’s no way I could have looked at that toy car and ended up with anything that looked like it! Great job!

  18. Rosalyn on July 28th, 2009 5:55 am

    Wow! :) another gorgeous cake!

  19. Carmen on July 30th, 2009 7:55 pm

    That is just so cute. You are very talented. I could try what you did, and it would not look like that. Great job. (All of your cakes have been really neat.)

    Carmen

  20. CottageGirl on August 2nd, 2009 1:00 pm

    You are amazing!

    Love your web site!

  21. Michelle on August 5th, 2009 7:13 pm

    WOW!! Good job on the cake! I’d love to make one like that for my little guy! What are the wheels made out of?

  22. Michelle on August 5th, 2009 7:14 pm

    Okay, nevermind about the above question. I saw now that they’re made out of fonduant.

  23. Emily on August 9th, 2009 7:49 am

    Wow! Kay, you are amazing and inspiring!!! Would love to watch you work. Great cake!

  24. janae on August 13th, 2009 5:19 pm

    how cute, Kay!! i haven’t been on for awhile, so it was fun to catch up!!!!

  25. Lori on August 14th, 2009 9:51 pm

    Kay, you are simply amazing! I like coolest-birthdaycakes.com but they often said they used fondant and I never saw an explanation on how to use it til now. Looks like fun. I love visiti ng your site. Keep up the great work.

  26. Theresa on August 17th, 2009 11:26 am

    Hi Kay . . .what a great cake! You’ve inspired me to make this cake in a couple of days for my little guy’s b-day party. Everything looks pretty self-explanatory, but I wanted to know if you used brown fondant color for the “Rusteze” logo, or if it was icing? If it was brown fondant, is there any way to get the color brown by combining colors . . .or do I have to buy the Wilton’s brown? Thanks, and I’ll send a picture when it’s done (if it turns out) :)
    Theresa

  27. Kay on August 17th, 2009 11:46 am

    Go for it, Theresa! And yes, I’d love to see a picture of it when you’re done! :)

    The Rusteze logo is both fondant and icing… The dark brown circle is rolled out dk brn fondant, then cut out in a circle with a cookie cutter. The tan letters and outline circle are piped on with icing, tinted with just a little bit of brown paste.

    I bought brown, but I think if you combine equal amounts of blue, red, and yellow, it makes brown. OR you could add melted chocolate or cocoa powder to the icing/fondant to make it brown.

  28. Yvonne on September 23rd, 2009 2:07 pm

    Thank you so much for the step by step. I have just made a version of this for my son’s birthday tomorrow and I am sure he is just going to love it. More than happy to email you a photo if you like.

  29. Kay on September 23rd, 2009 2:35 pm

    That’s fun to hear, Yvonne! I’ll bet your son will be tickled with it. And… of COURSE I want to see a picture! :)

  30. Missie on September 28th, 2009 10:08 am

    Ok, first terrific job. I think you did awesome. Second, your page was very helpful! My boyfriend and I have been trying for weeks to perfect a Lightning McQueen cake for my son (who’s turning 2 this Sunday)and it always seemed like we were missing something…I still have a questions though. How did u easily transfer the lightning mcqueen? Was it being that the cake had been previously frozen it was more sturdy or did you hide a board under the cake itself or what? We try to move our cake (which is bigger than your in size) and it bends like it wants to fall apart. Could you help???

  31. Kay on September 28th, 2009 10:37 am

    Missie, that’s great that you made a Lightning McQueen cake! :) I’d love if you’d email me a picture!

    Uh! Transferring it is the worst thing! I didn’t transfer this one… I did it right on the cake board. I have transferred plenty of my cakes though. It usually takes 2 people and 4 hands and a couple large pancake turners and LOTS of steadiness! I don’t have any secret techniques or anything, except grease the board/pancake turners/whatever tools you’re using to do the transfer. It’ll slide easier. And, if you get it transferred without having to do any touch-up, you’ll have done better than I ever have. ????

  32. Debbi Beard on September 30th, 2009 3:45 am

    Hi Kay
    Wow what a brillent cake. My son’s 7th birthday is coming up and my husband and I decided we would make him a Mcqueen car. Your site has given me the information I needed to make the cake. Chris my husband is the decorator so I will show him this site when he gets home. Thanks for showing how you made this.
    Debbi

  33. Debbi Beard on September 30th, 2009 4:07 am

    Hi Kay
    Forgot to mention we live in England so I will be making the cake from scratch as cake mixes over here are not that good. We have made other cakes before so the chocolate cake is not a promblem we made a Treasure Chest last year for my son’s 6th birthday we had a pirate party. It was my husbands first time at decorating and he did a great job. I had hurt my leg so couldn’t stand so I was sitting in the kitchen giving him instuctions on how to bake the cake ( first time he had made a cake). Told him what the design needed to look like and left him to it. He enjoyed it so much that we hope to go into business ourselves in the next three years we prefer novelty cakes and have made a few for family and friends over the past year.
    Debbi

  34. Ruth on November 23rd, 2009 10:09 am

    Hi. I live in Brooklyn and have been desperately trying to find a baker that will bake a cake for my nephew’s 1st birthday party. Its on December 5, 2009. I would like it a bit bigger than the one you made.Is there a possibility that would be able to do so. What is the cost? Thank you

  35. Kay on November 30th, 2009 9:38 pm

    Ruth, I am not able to ship cakes… not sure how to do it without them getting damaged. I really hope you’ve found someone who can make one for you. Or is there anyone in the family who would be up for a challenge? Have him/her make one! :)

    Debbi, how did your cake turn out?

  36. CristyLynn on January 29th, 2010 2:54 am

    Kay,
    Thanks for such clear directions on this cake. I realize you did this one a while ago, but I was just doing a search for Lightning McQueen cakes for my son’s 4th birthday next week. We live in Russia, and I’ve never seen fondant sold here. I have found a recipe for marshmallow fondant that I’m willing to try (don’t really care for the taste of store-bought fondant anyway). Have you ever worked with MMF? I had never heard of it. The recipe said that it tastes good. If you have time in the next couple of days to respond, I’d love to try this! Can you put regular icing on fondant, or does it slip off? I was thinking of doing the red with the MMF, and then doing the other details with buttercream frosting. I thought that might be a little simpler for me.
    Thanks for any advice!

  37. maegan owen on February 2nd, 2010 11:31 am

    You have helped me out so much! Thank you for your inspiration and guide! I look forard to making a lightning mcqueen cake!!!!

  38. maegan on February 3rd, 2010 6:00 pm

    Hey!

    I really want to try this Lightning Mcqueen for an upcoming birthday party. The event is on saturday and today is wednesday. If I carve the car and put icing on it…cover it with clingwrap and put it in the freezer…will it be ok for saturday?? thanks, maegan

    cakecreationsbymaegan@yahoo.com

  39. Kay on February 3rd, 2010 11:38 pm

    CristyLynn, Yes, it works great to use reg icing on fondant, but make sure it’s pretty stiff… if it’s too soft, the liquid seeps out (or that’s what it looks like happens anyway, the fondant looks wet around the base of the icing). It would sure be faster to pipe the details on! That was a bit tedious to cut all those little things out of fondant! I’ve never tried marshmallow fondant, but hey, if it allegedly tastes great, that would be a plus! :) I don’t like the taste of store-bought fondant either. When I eat a piece of fondant covered cake, I peel the fondant off.

    Maegan, I’ve never tried that, but as long as you don’t put the fondant on, I’m pretty sure it would be fine! One thing I learned the hard way is that fondant and freezer don’t mix. ???? It’s fine until you get it out, then as it’s thawing, the colors start to run. Aaaack! I wonder if you should be sure to let the cake totally thaw before putting the fondant on because maybe it’s fondant and cold that don’t mix… I’ve never put it in the fridge to see if the colors run when it gets back to room temp. Let me know how it works for you. It’s a great idea, one that I’d probably use sometime because birthdays come around whether it’s a busy time or not and sometimes it would be handy to pull a partially finished cake out of the freezer and only have to decorate it!

  40. Shannon on February 11th, 2010 12:15 pm

    Thank you so much! I made this cake for my son’s 3rd birthday and he absolutely loved it! So much that he stole the wheel and ate it before we made it to the party. LoL Here are the pics if interested.
    http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/shannonpfunk/013.jpg

  41. Kate on March 12th, 2010 3:24 pm

    I am planning to make this cake tonight. I have a question- for the Rust-eze logo which is brown, the Happy Birthday lettering and sme of the outlines, did you use the fondant or something else?

    Thanks!

  42. Kay on March 12th, 2010 4:41 pm

    Hey, good for you, Kate! Let me know how it turns out! :)

    The dark brown circle on the Rusteze logo is fondant, the light brown part of the logo is buttercream frosting piped on.

    The happy birthday lettering, the black around the lightning, and the ‘lettering’ on the tires is also all piped on. To do piping, I just put the frosting in a plastic bag and snip a little bit of the corner off. Or you could use a round decorating tip too.

    Good luck!

  43. gandygirl on March 16th, 2010 12:04 pm

    this is awesome I am making my first fondant cake ever for my sons bday – lightning mcqueen! and this is so helpful! you did a GREAT job!

  44. Bill on May 28th, 2010 9:21 pm

    Thanks for these photos. I am doing almost exactly the same thing, only I am using pound cake. A bit stiffer, and less crumbly, than sponge cake.
    I didn’t read all of the comments, so someone may have already told you this. A quick trick I have found for getting the powdered sugar off of fondant (especially an issue on black fondant), use a spray bottle filled with vodka. The vodka soaks up the sugar, and then the alcohol evaporates. Since the vodka has little, to no, flavor other than the alcohol itself, it has no effect on the flavor of the cake. This works quite well. BUT, make sure you have gotten it all smoothed out, and all, before you spray. It will moisten the fondant, like water, and make it difficult (impossible) to smooth the fondant.

  45. Darci Meier on July 5th, 2010 10:01 am

    Love this cake!!!! You made it look so simple to actually do….the step by step pictures are great! My question….how do you get teh red fondant so red???? Do you use gloves when you are mixing it??? My hands are always colored for days….any tricls??

  46. Kay on July 20th, 2010 10:51 am

    Darci, I used LOTS of food coloring paste to get the fondant so red. I’ve used gloves already, but most of the time, I just knead the color in there with my hands, then wash up right away with hot soapy water.

    Gandygirl, I hope your cake turned out well! :)

  47. Jen on July 22nd, 2010 1:32 am

    Kay,
    Thank you SO MUCH for posting this step by step with photos “how to” page! I’ve never done a fancy cake at all — I’ve never worked with fondant — but thanks to you, I’m going to give this a try next week for my son’s 3rd birthday.

    Question: How much fondant did you use? To simplify my life, I’m thinking to get some pre-made red and it comes in 2 lb containers. Will one be enough, plus I’ll get a second one of white? Also, how did you make the black? Did you just mix all the colors?

    Thanks!
    -jen

  48. Kay on July 22nd, 2010 5:50 am

    Jen,
    I’m glad you’re trying it! :) I hope it goes good for you!
    I forget what the oz are in the size of package that I used, but I think it was 1 lb. There are often 2 sizes available at the store and I used the smallest size. I got white, then mixed all the colors with Wilton food coloring paste (not liquid food coloring), the paste comes in little cans about 1 1/2″ tall. They have all sorts of colors, including black… that’s what I used.
    Not a bad idea to get pre-made red… I do NOT like mixing color into fondant! It takes a long time to get it evenly colored… something tye-dyed would take less time. :)

  49. Lori on August 8th, 2010 6:45 am

    Kay,
    Thank you! Your photos and instructions were great and made this much less intimidating, so we decided to try it. Our cake turned out fantastic and it was our first try working with fondant. Now we are ready to try another for my older son’s birthday and he wants Spongebob. Whew! At least Spongebob is square-lol. I can’t believe we were able to do this and it is thanks to your fantastic photos and tips. We found using the shortening to be much easier for us to work with the fondant and Wilton even has a coloring gel “Cars” kit now with all the necessary colors. I cheated and used a black Wilton gel frosting tube to write all the letters and outline the numbers etc., but at 3am it was helpful.

    Lori

  50. Rachel on August 17th, 2010 8:20 am

    Hello Kay
    Many thanks for posting this step by step guide. Your Cake is brilliant. My sister has asked me to make this cake for my nephew and your instructions are really going to help. I have only made 2 fancy cakes before and I normally cover them with Apricot Glaze. I see you have used a white frosting to cover the cake before the icing. what is that? Would it replace the glaze? Im still only a beginner and would love to hear from you.
    Best wishes
    Rachel

  51. Katie on August 26th, 2010 8:51 pm

    Your cake is amazing. I have never attempted anything like this before! My sons 4th birthday party is tomorrow night and he absolutely loves Lightning McQueen, so I’m going to attempt to make this beautiful cake! Here goes nothing!!

  52. Sarah on September 20th, 2010 12:12 am

    This cake is so creative and cute. I would love to try this out for my nephew’s 2nd birthday.

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  54. Sunehra on February 8th, 2011 8:03 am

    Hi, your cake really inspired me to make one for my 2 year old who just loves Lightening Mcqueen. The cake came out pretty good too. Thanks a lot.

    Wanted to share photos of my cake – how do I do that?

    Thanks again
    Sunehra

  55. Lisa on February 8th, 2011 8:52 am

    Hi Kay i am just admiring the mcqueen cake that you have done, Awesome really. It is my sons 4th Birthday on valentines day so i was going to give this cake a go, I was just going to ask for the spoiler would you be able to tape the cardboard on to 3 tooth picks & then press them into the cake so that it wont flop.I’ll still give it a go & send you some pics of it

  56. Kay on April 30th, 2011 12:09 pm

    Rachel, I’m late in replying here, but yes, I use regular buttercream icing instead of apricot glaze. I’ve only tried glaze once. It worked fine, but I like the icing better for taste and because it does better at hiding flaws. ????

    Sunehra, I’d LOVE to see pictures of your cake! Email photos to kay@kitchenscrapbook.com I’d love to put them on my post of people who’ve made Lightning McQueen cakes! :)

    Lisa, that idea sounds brilliant for the spoiler! Is that what you ended up doing? And did it work?

  57. Donna Dolendo on June 5th, 2011 8:11 pm

    Hi Kay, Thank you so much for sharing this tutorial. I made one and followed your instructions. It turned out great! thanks! I will send you a photo of the cake I made.

  58. TOSHA on June 14th, 2011 12:14 pm

    THIS IS SO CUTE.AND I LOVE HOW U DID STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS.IM GONNA TRY THIS MY SONS BIRTHDAY IS N JULY.

  59. Niccy on June 20th, 2011 11:24 am

    Thanks so much for great instructions and ideas! I used your basic idea and instructions – made a few changes because I am a chicken! – I don’t like working with fondant, so used regular icing and hot, wet knives to make it smooth, I cut the spoiler at the back out of cake and iced that too, changed the number and name to mean more to my girl!, made the tires out of oreos and just iced over the white cream filling with black, I did still do the windows and decals out of fondant, and painted the decals with a kids paintbrush and food colouring instead of trying to mix colour in. – It was a huge success – thank you for all your help in getting the shape right and giving me so many ideas! – am emailing you with photos!

  60. Dal on June 23rd, 2011 4:50 pm

    I haven’t checked all the previous comments but if I make this the day before my son’s birthday and put it in the fridge will it be okay?

  61. Kay on June 23rd, 2011 4:59 pm

    Dal, that should work great. I put a fondant-covered cake in the fridge for 3 days just recently and it was totally fine. When I got it out of the fridge, I put it in the coolest air-conditioned room to come to room temp. Don’t put it in the freezer though… I did that one time and when it came to room temp, the fondant got all shiny and wet and the colors started running!

    Donna and Niccy, I got your pictures! So exciting! Thanks!!! :) Nice job!! I’ll add them to the Lightning McQueen Again post in the next day or so.

    Tosha, go for it! And send me pics! :)

  62. Melissa on June 28th, 2011 9:55 am

    This cake is fabulous! I too am a SAHM who loves to bake and make all of my boy’s b-day cakes! It is very relaxing and the joy of the look on their faces are priceless! Thank you for the step by step instructions. I plan on making this cake for my son’s 3rd birthday in Aug. Can’t wait to get started!!!

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  65. Jorden on July 21st, 2011 1:50 pm

    my little nabers think that this cake is sooooooo cooollllll!you sould have sale there faces when they saw the cack

  66. jorden on July 21st, 2011 1:51 pm

    :)

  67. Tianah on July 24th, 2011 4:22 am

    Hey, Im 16 and I had an assignment to do on a ‘catering buisness’. It was for Food Technology. We were also required to make a cake for this and my theme was ‘Cars’ for a boys 5th birthday. I stumbled upon this website and thought…”Wow, this lady is talented!” So i decided to follow your instructions, and guess what? My cake turned out absolutely fabulous and I got a top mark! I’m from Australia, by the way. I just wanted to thankyou sooooo much for this cake. The instructions were easy to understand and I ended up with a beatiful cake. xoxo Couldn’t have found a better site.thankyouuuu ????

  68. Erin Lemon on July 25th, 2011 5:43 pm

    I’ve been dreading making a lightning McQueen cake, but yours makes it seem like “It CAN BE DONE”. Thank you for your step by step guide! Wish me luck!

  69. Jennifer on September 10th, 2011 12:23 pm

    I don’t know if anybody else has given you this tip but to get fondant a nice bright red without having to use a whole container of dye is to replace some of the icing sugar with a package of jello crystals (strawberry, cherry, whatever). Not only does is give the fondant a nice flavour but it will give your fondant some color and then you can add your dye to get whatever intensity you are going for. Great cake btw!

  70. Loraine on September 10th, 2011 1:55 pm

    Do ou recommend freezing the cake before carving?

  71. giddy tigress on September 28th, 2011 5:30 am

    This is gorgeous, and I am thinking of attempting this one soon! Just a quick question though…What did you use for the lightning at the sides, the orangey and yellow part? Is it fondant?

  72. Samantha Kjell on November 4th, 2011 11:27 am

    Thank you so much for taking the time to take pictures and do a step by step guide to building this cake. My son is turning 2 and is OBSESSED with lightening McQueen. I cant wait to tackle this cake and hope it looks at least HALF as good as yours!! :o)

  73. Giddy Tigers » That Cake I Made on February 1st, 2012 11:57 pm

    […] I relied on to make this cake.  If you want to reproduce this cake in any way, I highly recommend this article, with excellent pictures to […]

  74. Presha on March 11th, 2012 4:21 pm

    Hi,
    Just want to know where r u based. B’se I’m planning to order a lightining McQueen b’day cake for my son in April. Therefore would like to know. We live I’m Australia.
    Regards
    Presha

  75. Kay on March 11th, 2012 9:46 pm

    Presha, I live in Ohio. I’d suggest you’d check with Planet Cake… they are in Sydney and make AMAZING cakes! :)

Herbed New Potatoes

Posted on July 20, 2009
Filed Under Easy meals, Side dishes

If you want quick-n-easy, here you go. These would honestly fit into a “30 minutes to mealtime” category. And 20 of those minutes is the potatoes cooking, so that’s some free time to fry some chicken, make a salad, or whatever else is for dinner. All you do is peel a stripe around the potatoes, throw them in a kettle to cook, then 20 minutes later, toss them with a butter and herb mixture and put them on the table.

This is one of those recipes I clipped a long time ago. Well, I didn’t technically clip it, I scribbled it down. When I have a clipped recipe, sometimes I can tell where they came from, but when I just wrote it, it’s only a guess. Maybe it was out of a magazine in a doctor’s office or somewhere (because, you know, I’d never rip a recipe out of someone else’s magazine!). I’ve seen this potato recipe in my stash of clipped recipes pretty often, but never tried it… maybe because it’s so hard and complicated. Just kidding.

Anyway, this recipe is definitely a keeper. It’s simple enough for a regular weeknight meal, but dressy enough for Sunday company. As I wrote that part about being dressy, I wondered what I thought makes it dressy and I guess it’s because of the peeled stripe around it and the parsley garnish. ????  We ate these with sour cream, but I wish I’d have thought of Ranch dressing. I’ll bet that would’ve been really good with them too!

And here’s the recipe:

Herbed new Potatoes

12 small new potatoes
4 tsp. butter
1 1/3 tsp. dried parsley (or 1 1/3 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley if you prefer)
1 1/3 tsp. chives
Fresh parsley for garnish

Peel 1/2″ strip around center of each potato. Place in cold water in saucepan. Boil potatoes about 20 minutes or till done. Don’t overcook.
herbed-potatoes1.jpg

Drain and cover. Melt butter and stir in chives and parsley. Pour over potatoes and toss to coat. Spoon potatoes into bowl and garnish with parsley. Serve immediately. Serves 4. Variation: Can also sprinkle with bacon or finely minced greeen onions.
herbed-potatoes2.jpg

Oh, and about ripping a recipe out of someone’s else’s magazine… *ahem* … Confession: I did one time several years ago at an oil change place while waiting on my car to get done. But only that one time. Seriously. ???? I forget, but I probably didn’t have a pen and paper on me. It was a garlic biscuit recipe of some sort, but not these Red Lobster ones.

Change of subject now: This article hit the news last week. ???? By Melissa Dutton for the Associated Press: http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/story/5579539/ I guess now you’ll know what Lexi’s 7th birthday cake will be. :)

Comments

6 Responses to “Herbed New Potatoes”

  1. liz on July 20th, 2009 10:17 am

    Way to go with the news article! Wondered if you were going to leave a link on here. Are you still going to talk to us commoners?:)

  2. Jo on July 20th, 2009 10:49 am

    Reminds me of a TOH recipe from years back. On Friday, Titus dug up a few new potatoes from his garden…and I have parsley growing in my raised bed, and chives in the fridge…so I might have to try your recipe sometime this week. Nothing beats the taste & texture of new potatoes! Mmm. my mouth is watering. :-)

  3. Ruthie on July 20th, 2009 11:14 am

    Wow!! You are now officially famous!! Even to the point where they call you “Martin”!! I’m a little worried, with Liz. Are we good enough for you now? =) You might have to let us know by baking a cake for us….. hee hee The potatoes are a good example of taking a plain, easy dish and adding a few ingredients to dress it up nicely. Very nice.

  4. Rosalyn on July 20th, 2009 11:56 am

    This is interesting, finding this on here…just this very weekend I found this recipe in an old TOH magazine, the picture looked almost identical to yours. :)
    I can’t wait to make this, we love new potatoes!! :)

  5. Kay on July 20th, 2009 12:36 pm

    Ok! So this recipe must’ve been copied out of a TOH magazine!!! I have some of the TOH annual cookbooks, I should see if it’s in there. ????

  6. Charlene on July 21st, 2009 5:46 am

    I was looking for recipes to use with my new potaotes, I will def be trying this one.

No-Drip Popsicles

Posted on July 6, 2009
Filed Under Holiday cooking, Snacks

So… how many moms perked up at the ‘no drip’ part? :)

I was just going to freeze Koolaid into popsicles, but then I saw this recipe and had to try it. Really, how can there be a no-drip popsicle?!

popsicles-jas-chl.jpg
These are my friend Carrie’s twins, Chloe and Jasmine. Aren’t they just adorable? They are 2 1/2. You oughta hear them talk.

When I started thinking of how to make these popsicles, there was one problem… how to get the white part. The red is cherry, the blue is blueberry; both kinds are in the Koolaid dept and the jello dept. Well, what about white? The lightest thing I saw in the Koolaid was lemonaide, so I got that. And the lightest thing I saw in the jello section was pineapple, so I got that. When I mixed them together, it was yellow. Way too yellow. I still hadn’t put all the water in, so I thought of evaporated milk and replaced some of the water with that. Worked great! And that layer actually tastes good too. That’s always a plus. ;)

No-drip Popsicles …recipe comes from here

1 3oz pkg jello, any flavor
1 pkg kool-aid, (same flavor as jello)
1 cup sugar
2 cups boiling water
2 cups cold water
Popsicle molds (I used 9 oz. plastic cups and popsicle/craft sticks)

Pour boiling water over jello, kool-aid and sugar. Stir till completely dissolved. Pour into molds; freeze. I did this recipe 3 times (once in red, once in white, and once in blue) and it made 16 popsicles. Freeze between each layer. When the middle white layer gets thick enough, put popsicles sticks in. Making these took all day (poured the first layer in around 9 am, and the popsicles were ready to eat by 7:30 pm).
4thpopsicles.jpg

And here is our test crew to see if the popsicles are actually no-drip or not. :)

popsicles-girls.jpg

They, of course, did drip some, but I was pretty impressed. I’ve seen popsicles make alot bigger messes! I think the jello in there made it thicker… the juice didn’t run too much. They’re easy and quick to make (especially if you make them all the same color instead of layered).

What a great summertime treat! Send your kids outside with some!

Comments

4 Responses to “No-Drip Popsicles”

  1. Sharon on July 6th, 2009 10:30 am

    cute! These bring back memories of my childhood–my best friend’s Mom used to make these. And you can suck on ‘em and the juice doesn’t all suck out like the plain koolaid ones…

  2. Katrina on July 6th, 2009 11:39 am

    I’ll have to try these for sure! We’re pretty drippy over here.

  3. Shy on July 7th, 2009 3:36 pm

    These are cool. I’m making them right now…a layer in the freezer…for our garage sale this weekend. Thought it would be fun for the children as there are several of us getting together and I’m making lunch. But, the middle layer is indeed, yellow. :)

  4. Berneice on July 11th, 2009 1:33 pm

    These are the popsicles I was raised on all my life, and now my kids are eating them too. But I sure didn’t know that they were No-drip! lol, anything drips in this heat!

Happy 4th of July!

Posted on July 4, 2009
Filed Under Holiday cooking

Hope your day is filled with fun, friends, family, and good food!

On the menu for us tonight is burgers, hot dogs, beans, chips, salad, this dessert, and these popsicles for the kids.

4thdessert.jpg

4thpopsicles.jpg

It’s so easy to make food fit the 4th of July, especially if it’s dessert. Make a USA or flag or star shape out of it OR pick out blue and red M&Ms or Skittles to use in it OR sprinkle it with red, white, and blue sprinkles OR change the fruit in the recipe to blueberries and strawberries or raspberries, etc. I’ll post these trifle and popsicle recipes later.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

Comments

2 Responses to “Happy 4th of July!”

  1. Ruthie on July 4th, 2009 7:13 pm

    I think I will come just for the dessert!

  2. Jo H. on July 5th, 2009 2:34 pm

    I don’t actually NEED more dessert recipes to try but it seems thats what always lands in my recipe box. :) These look delicious! Keep the great recipes coming!

Rice Crispy Bars for July 4

Posted on July 2, 2009
Filed Under Holiday cooking

I’m going to an out-of-town birthday party for the day, but before I leave, I just wanted to let you know that I’m making a few things for July 4th posts in red, white, and blue. Here is one and I’ll write more when I get back home this afternoon/evening. :)

usa-rice-crispy-bars.jpg

Have a good day!

—————————————————————————————-

Ok, back from the birthday party.

Speaking of the birthday party…
bday-party.jpg

Yeah, Katrina, I did use the USA shape last year. It was with finger jello, pictured here and here, and recipe featured here. This year is rice crispy bars. I’m going to try to use it for something different every year. My options are a bit limited because it is plastic, so I can’t bake anything in it. I may end up asking for ideas one of these years. :)

usa-rice-crispy1.jpg

To make the rice crispy bars, I greased the mold and lightly pressed the rice crispy mixture in, then turned it out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Then, I took a bag of mini M&Ms and picked out the blue and red and filled the states with them, then put the rice crispy shape back in and pressed it down harder so the M&Ms would stick, then turned it out onto the serving plate.

So, now I have a bunch of little M&Ms left without red and blue. I just might make these Peanut Butter Dream Bars with them. ???? Everytime I think of mini M&Ms, I always think of these bars… kinda like every time you think of 4th of July, you think of fireworks.

I had some rice crispy mixture left over, so I flattened it out, then melted vanilla chips and colored half of it red and half of it blue and drizzled it over the rest of the bars. I forgot to take a picture of that part, but you can see a few of the squares at the bottom of this picture:
usa3.jpg

I’m going to make something else red, white, and blue tomorrow, so check back! :)

Comments

5 Responses to “Rice Crispy Bars for July 4”

  1. Arla on July 2nd, 2009 7:48 am

    Such a clever lady! My mom always makes Blueberry Delight that looks like our flag. Pretty neat stuff.

  2. Katrina on July 2nd, 2009 8:52 am

    Love it. I love your US cutter, you did something with it last year, also, it seems.
    Have a great 4th!

  3. Katrina on July 2nd, 2009 8:52 am

    P. S. I call Texas! hehe

  4. renita on July 2nd, 2009 7:45 pm

    That’s clever! I like anything red,white and blue. Will keep looking for the next one.

  5. Shannon on July 3rd, 2009 10:54 am

    They were good. ????

Cake Mix Cookies

Posted on July 31, 2009
Filed Under Cookies and bars

V-A-R-I-E-T-Y!!!! That’s what’s so fun about these cookies! You know in the grocery store, in the baking aisle, how there are several shelves full of cake mixes? Red ones, yellow ones, white ones, brown ones, confetti ones, pink ones, orange ones, blue ones… are there blue ones? Not sure about that now that I think of it.

And you can make even more variety! You can mix the colors too… make brown and pink (chocolate and strawberry) for your daughter’s slumber party… when you’re rolling the dough into balls, make them half the size they should be, then smash a brown and pink one together and put it on the cookie sheet.

I should’ve made a bunch of different kinds and then featured them all. But, I guess I’ll just feature them using one kind. The best flavor ever in the world of food.

Chocolate.

cake-mix-cookies-7.jpg

This recipe is adapted from the Tasteful Delights cookbook.

Cake Mix Cookies

1 cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 Tbsp. flour

cake-mix-cookies-1.jpg
Don’t you just wonder what magic that little tablespoon of flour does? Seems like it wouldn’t make enough difference for the bother. Next time, I should be really daring and omit it, and see what happens
. :)

Beat all the ingredients together. Roll into balls and put on cookie sheets.
cake-mix-cookies-2.jpg

Bake at 350 for 11 minutes.
cake-mix-cookies-3.jpg Yum. They have cracks in them. I like when cookies have cracks like that. Makes them look soft and chewy.

Sprinkle with sugar. I used powdered sugar. I just sprinkled some of them because I think I like the looks of them better without.
cake-mix-cookies-5.jpg

Actually, I think I like them best some with and some without. You know, variety.
cake-mix-cookies.jpg

Comments

11 Responses to “Cake Mix Cookies”

  1. Shannon on July 31st, 2009 3:52 pm

    Oh, this looks interesting. Maybe I should make some tonight with the girls, but I don’t think we’ll be using Chocolate cake mix. :)

    Saw your recipe on PW’s Tasty Kitchen. :)

  2. Liz on July 31st, 2009 3:58 pm

    I just saw a recipe like this on my cousins site (she didn’t have flour in hers) and it has been rolling around in my head that I should make them. Just takes more energy to do that kind of thing what with the good chance of having a 10 month old hanging on my skirt.

  3. Kay on July 31st, 2009 4:35 pm

    Shannon, that’s actually YOUR recipe on Tasty Kitchen, you know! ;) I love love love that site, don’t you?

  4. Tonya on July 31st, 2009 7:38 pm

    We like to make lemon ones. they are sooooo yummy!!!!!

  5. Rina on July 31st, 2009 11:20 pm

    I’ve made these! So easy and I couldn’t believe they actually tasted good!

  6. Lanita on August 1st, 2009 7:54 am

    I love these cookies! I almost forgot about them…I’m pretty sure my recipe doesn’t have the T of flour.

  7. Katrina on August 2nd, 2009 6:24 am

    I have a similar recipe–2 boxes of cake mix, 5 eggs and 2/3 cups oil. No extra flour. I’m sure they taste the same–and I love them. For even more variety, add pb chips to the chocolate or cc to the yellow ones, etc! It’s endless possibilities! (My favorite is probably chocolate with chocolate chips, too!) Yours look perfect.

  8. Elsie on August 4th, 2009 7:24 am

    I also have a recipe without the flour, but it calls for butter or margarine in place of the oil and adds 1 tsp. vanilla. They are so nice and fast when you are in a hurry.

  9. Heather on August 4th, 2009 9:18 pm

    These cookies look delicious. and easy. My 4 year old daughter and I are planning on making them tomorrow. Thanks for the recipe.

  10. Beth in NC on August 5th, 2009 9:19 am

    I baked these last night and they were SO GOOD!! My husband loved them.

  11. Robin on August 20th, 2009 10:41 am

    Just made some and they are delicious. Although I do have some flour spots in my cookies, but I suppose that it takes time to become a good cook. :)