Fire Truck Cake

This weekend I had the opportunity to make a birthday cake for a little boy turning 3.  He was having his party at a fire station, so of course he needed a fire truck cake.  The cake was a white butter cake with a chocolate mousse filling and iced with butter cream. The cake was made to serve 25, but the costumer ended up with a higher guest count than anticipated, so we added a dozen white cupcakes which I frosted with fire orange buttercream.  I got a lot of my ideas for the truck on-line, there are some great tutorials available.  The ladders were done in white chocolate and the fire hydrant and puddle were done in fondant.  For the lights I used Jolly ranchers and M&M's.  It was my second attempt at a truck cake and I think this one was much cleaner than my first attempt.  I still need to work at the detail on my cakes and figure out a way to work around my shaky hands, that make my piping look like I was working during an earthquake.  As I do more cakes it is becoming easier for me to set up a work schedule.  I am getting a better idea of how long each step will take and what can be done ahead of time.  Having a schedule definitely helps eliminate some of the last minute rush, there are still steps that have to be done last minute, but at least I am getting a better idea of what those steps will be. 

Fire Truck Cake Timeline

Mon: Sketch design, make templets, make cake board

Tue: Chocolate work -  ladders

Wed: Fondant work - fire hydrant, puddle, ladder sign 

Thur: Bake and freeze 2 9x13 cakes 

Fri: Chocolate mousse filling

Sat: Build and ice cake - do all piping work

Sun: Add detail - candy, ladders

The next things I need to get better at are determining how much cake I really need and making better ingredient lists so I only make one trip to the store instead of ten.