This year we celebrated Doodle Bugs and Squeaks Birthdays together at a local fire station.
Doodle Bugs' Ladder Truck
Squeaks' Hose Truck
Fire Truck Tutorial
Supplies:
9" x 13" cake mix
Oreo or similar sandwich cookies
Shoe string licorice or thinned frosting for outlines
Shoe string licorice for hoses
OR Pretzel rods and regular pretzels for ladder
Gumdrops for lights
Mini candies for instruments
3 cups of your favorite decorating frosting, you may need a bit more if not using shoe string licorice
Bake a 9" x 13" cake using your favorite cake mix, with these modifications:
1) Replace the water with milk
2) Add 2T of whip topping MIX or meringue powder, if you have it
3) Reduce recommended temperature by 25 degrees
4) Increase baking time 5 to 15 minutes
This results in a flatter, firmer cake.
Cook cake completely. If cake has a dome, trim it off until it is flat.
Freeze cake 2 - 3 hours.
Meanwhile make 3 cups of your favorite decorating frosting.
Tint 2 cups with the main body color (in this case yellow or chartreuse)
Tint 3/4 cup gray for the instrument panel
Leave the remaining 1/4 cup white for the front window
Mark one upper corner over about 1.5" and down 3". Cut it off, the slant is the windshield.
Mark two more spots 3" and 5" from the new top corner. Cut down 1.5" into the body of the cake from each mark. Carefully cut across and then remove resulting rectangle.
1) Frost the cut edges to seal crumbs
2) Using gray icing make a smooth wide stripe from top to bottom below the cut out rectangle. The stripe should be slightly wider than the cut out. Frost the sides of the cut out gray as well.
3) Frost the bottom of the truck gray.
4) Using the main body color, frost the remainder of the cake, carefully overlapping on the sides of the "instrument panel" in straight lines.
5) Use the white icing to make the window.
6) Add outlines and ladder/hoses.
7) Refrigerate cake until party.
8) Cut several cookies in half to place "under" the truck as wheels, top with a whole cookie.
9) Put candies on instrument panel. (This keeps the candy shiny and beautiful)
