KA-CHOW!!!

What comes before thunder? That's right Lightning. Lightning McQueen that is. This week, aside from several yummy cupcake orders, I also had the pleasure of creating a Car's cake for a little man who is turning 3. Benson loves Cars, Toy Story, and Angry Birds so the cake possibilities were endless.  However at the top of his list for birthday cakes were Lightning McQueen and Tow-Mater. Having already tried a Mater cake last summer I thought I would give Lightning a try. And I have to say I am quite please with the way it turned out. (Not that I didn't have my moments of doubt with this one....)

For a simplified version of Julie's toy I think he turned out awesome.

The both the car and the base are chocolate cake with vanilla icing.

The road is brown sugar and the grass is tinted vanilla icing. I may have to do some stretches for my wrist and forearm after doing the grass. Time consuming but so fun! 

Lightning is covered in homemade fondant (which is where my troubles began this time) and has both modelling chocolate and fondant accents.

That tail is solid fondant (I am praying it stays in one piece until Benson at least sees it!)

What did I learn this week? Well it really just hit home something I already knew.... 

Buy red fondant. 

Don't make it yourself. 

You see in order to get a really good red colour you need to do 2 things: 1. READ THE LABEL ON THE BOTTLE or at least make a test patch before you tint the whole thing. 2. Dump the whole bottle of red colour in and use 'no taste' red. 

I did the second one of these. Sadly the first colour I added was actually a burgundy colour that I must have stuck the wrong lid on at some point.  I then madly tried to back pedal and fix the problem with red. The colour was pretty dark when I finished but not too far off. I actually think the burgundy colour helped make the red really solid.  However adding that much colour to anything will mess it up and my perfect fondant was no longer perfect. All I could do was pray that it still had enough elasticity to cover the cake with out crumbling. We more or less made it. There were a number of cracks that I was able to fix so the overall effect was positive.

On a happier note I also made a new friend. Cornstarch. I have been a die hard icing sugar fan for rolling out my fondant for several years now. I am no longer a fan. I have dumped you, sticky icing sugar, and am now in a relationship with cornstarch. I discovered that at least for MMF it makes a lovely slippy surface and buffs out much easier. WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THIS YEARS AGO???? Sigh... Live and learn.

And that is enough ranting for today. I hoped you enjoy the pictures of Lightning. I hope Benson, a fabulous little man, has a great birthday and I am thrilled that Amy asked me to be a part of it.

Take care!

Sandy