VROOOOOM! How to Make a Race Track Birthday Cake!

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The Cutest, and totally DIY-able, Race Track Cake

So, my 5 year old was VERY specific with his birthday cake request last year. He wanted a rectangle, race track with cars on it and tires on the sides birthday cake . Well ok kid, lets figure this out. His birthday is 3 days after my birthday which is 2 days after Christmas. Yikes. We looked up some inspiration pictures and I came up with a plan. As with most of my plans, when my sister is here they turn out WAY cuter because she adds the BEST details. Like the fans in the stands and the absolutely fantastic finish line banner. But lets get into the process so you can recreate this!

What You Need

You will need a
9×13 pan
A grass tip for your piping bag
Piping bags
Dye of your choice to get green grass
Oreos
Cake Mixes, at least 2
Powdered Sugar
Butter
Large enough cutting board or display board to turn cake out onto

You’re going to bake an entire cake mix in the 9×13 pan lined with parchment paper or sprayed really well. You’re going to be turning them out of the pan, so you will bake two cakes. All of our little kids are Gluten Free and the Krusteaz chocolate cake mix is hands down the BEST Gluten Free cake mix on the market. I order them by the case from the manufacturer.

First Assembly Steps

You are going to need a large cutting board or cake board to turn your cakes out onto. You will do the first one, turning it out onto the board UPSIDE DOWN after it’s cooled a bit in the pan. Bake the second cake then while the second cake is cooling you will need to make the frosting that will be between the layers. You will want a basic buttercream recipe which I am not providing in this post.

Next Assembly Steps

After your filling frosting is ready you will layer that THICKLY on the bottom cake, which should be completely cooled. You will then very carefully with lots of prayer and fingers crossed, turn the top cake layer out on top. You will inevitably need to adjust the top layer, an offset spatula can help here. You will then need to take your base layer and filler frosting and fill in the gaps between the cake layers. You want to do this BEFORE you do your crumb coat so that you don’t have giant gaps between the layers. After you smooth that out you can do the rest of your crumb coat.

Let’s talk about Crumb Coats

Crumb coats are a very important,maybe the MOST important part of getting a nice looking final cake. It’s also probably the messiest looking part of the process. You want a THIN layer of frosting so it seals in all the crumbs and your final coat of frosting looks smooth. For Sure it will not look pretty at this point. So let the crumb coat set for a few minutes, inside the fridge if you can, to set, before you add the next layer of frosting.

If you don’t do this the layers will mix and you will have crumbs in your final product. Then you’re going to do the top coat, but for this cake it doesn’t have to be perfect because we are adding grass, a road and tires. This cake is really forgiving. Now you will want to crush your Oreo’s at this point too, as well as make your grass frosting.

Grass, Tires, and a Road

Then I drew the shape of the road with a toothpick, crushed my oreo’s then placed them on the cake within the lines and pressed gently. You will want to practice with your grass tip a bit to get the hang of it but it’s pretty easy. You want to pull up quickly after dispensing the frosting to get the grassy look You will notice I’m not perfect at this. Its fiiiiiine.

Final Lap! Tires and Fans and the Finish Line!

I used frosting to attach the cookies to the side of the cake as tires, and my graphic designer sister made the fans in the stands, which honestly might have been my favorite part of the whole thing, and the finish line banner.

Stand Back and Admire your Handywork

If You Can Do This

You can do any round cake request, because the rectangle layered cake is WAY harder than round layered cake. For real. You’ve got this!

Happy Cake Baking
Melinda

Other helpful Posts
How to Pop those balloons quietly – here
How to have an affordable, sustainable birthday party – here
Classic, collected little boys room – here

Helpful Affiliate links

Krusteaz Gluten Free Cake Mixes – here
9×13 Baking pan – here
Piping bags for frosting – here
Piping tips set – here
Grass piping tip – here
Race Track Cake Topper – here