Lightning McQueen Car Cake

I am cutting queue to post this cake up 1st, if not this cake can be posted only at least 2 months later since I still have quite a no. of back logs.

This cake was baked for my little kicker's birthday on 29 September 2012, yes his 1st birthday, times flies, my little baby is one year old now :).

When I decided to bake a cake for him, I have set my mind to make a car cake. Friends asked me why car cake? Why red color? Is it he likes car? Is it his favourite color is red? My replied was his mummy thinks that cars should be boys' favourite and his mummy not sure which is his favourite color but his mummy thinks that red car is very out-standing and nice lol.

Well, actually when mixing the coloring into whipping cream, I was kind of regretted. I should have chosen other colors e.g. blue, color, orange...etc instead of red. The amount of coloring that I used really scared me, I used 2 bottles of different red coloring and 1/2 bottle of pink coloring to achieve this red, I used wilton coloring. I did some research before I started on the mixing of coloring into whipping cream, here is what I did. Firstly, I added pink coloring into whipping cream, about 1/2 bottle to get dark pink, then I added christmas red and no taste red starting with 1 tsp each, I almost finished both the bottles. I let the colored whipping cream sits in the fridge overnight so that the color will get darken a bit.

 I think this will be the 1st and might be the last time I will make a RED color cake, I have to tell all my guests and specially kept reminding dear daughter and her friends not to eat the red cream at all. The red coloring became my nightmare, my hands were in red for a few days. My little kicker's hand was in red too cos he went to "snatch" the cake, he kept starring at his hand cos the red coloring stay on his hand even after washed a few times, he must be so curious why his hand change color hahaha...(I will share this photo in future :P).

There were a lot of hiccups here and there that nearly making me to give up on this cake, I had to bake the chocolate cake 3 times in order to get the right amount. I will not record down how much cakes I had wasted but share the sufficient amount of ingredients to make this car. I am not sure is it too much liquid in the whipping cream due to the large amount of coloring, the colored whipped cream is not as smooth and also a bit grainy I feel. The colored whipped cream also soften very fast in room temperature, I can only pipe for awhile and the whipped cream need to chill before I can continue, thus spent a lot of times on moving the cake and whipped cream in and out of the fridge.

Ingredients:
Chocolate Cake : (for 2 trays of 9" x 11" cake pan)
8 egg white
8 egg yolks
300g sugar
160g cake flour
64g corn flour
4 1/4 tbsp cocoa powder
2 1/8 tsp baking powder
106g corn oil

Method:
1. Sift cake flour with cornflour, baking powder and cocoa powder.
2. Whisk egg white until soft peak forms and then add in sugar gradually and whisk till sugar dissolved and mixture is thick and glossy.
3. Drop in egg yolks, one at a time, making that it's evenly combined before the next addition.
4. Fold in 1/2 of flour mixture and mix well.
5. Pour in oil and mix well, fold in the balance flour mixture and mix till well combine.
6. Pour the mixture into round cake tin and bake in pre-heat oven at 175C for about 15-20 mins or till skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Leave cake to cool on a wire rack.



White Gelatin Stabilized Whipped Cream : adapted from Evan's Rambling Kitchen
200g whipping cream

1 tbsp powdered sugar

1/2 tsp powdered gelatin

Method :

1. In a small saucepan, combine powdered sugar and gelatin. gradually stir in 1/4 cup of the cream. bring mixture to just a boil while stirring constantly. it will thicken slightly. scrape the mixture into a small bowl and allow to cool to room temp.

2. In a chilled mixing bowl, whip the rest of the cream just until traces of the beater marks begin to show. add the cooled gelatin mixture in a steady stream, beating constantly. whip until stiff and use immediately.

* I had left about one rice bowl of whipped cream.

Red Coloring Whipped Cream :

350g whipping cream

1 bottle wilton no taste red

1 bottle wilton christmas red

1/2 bottle wilton pink

1. Mix the pink coloring into whipping cream to get dark pink.

2. Mix 1 tsp of christmas red and no taste red alternately until achieve the red color you want.

3. Let the colored whipping cream sit in the fridge over night.

3. Whip the colored whipping cream until stiff and use immediately.

* I had left about one and half to two rice bowl of whipped cream

Chocolate Butter Cream : 

550g butter (soften)
60g sugar
300g melted chocolate
10 oreo cookies - crushed

Beat butter and icing sugar till light. Then pour in melted chocolate and mix till evenly mixed and pour in crushed oreo cookies.

*  The chocolate butter cream is more than enough, if you do not need a thick layer of chocolate butter cream filling, you can cut down to 350g - 400g of butter.

I didn't take photo on the step by step, you may refer to 温馨小屋

 

For assemble : 

1. Slice the 2 pcs of rectangle chocolate cakes into half and you will get total 4 pcs of cakes.

2. Stack up the 3 slices of cakes.

3. Slice the balance 1 pc of cake into 3 pcs and stack up, placed it on the center of the big stacked cake.

4. Trim the front and back of the small stacked cake in slant way to become front and back wind screen. 

5. Use one of the trimmed pc to place on the end of the big stacked cake to become spoiler.

6. Trim both front sides of the big stacked cake to become headlights.

7. Apply chocolate butter cream onto each layer of cakes.

8. Apply white whipped cream onto the whole cake.

9. Use the pipping tip no. 2 to pipe thin red lines for windows, front and back wind screen, headlights and car plate.

10. Use pipping tip no. 20 to pipe red whipped cream to fill up the whole cake except the windows, front and back wind screen, headlights and car plate.

11. Use 4 oreo cookies to become the 4 typres.

12. Use 2 chocolate chips and place on the front window screen to become the eyes.

13. Mix yellow coloring into the balance white whipped cream and piped on the car for the numbering and lightning logo. Pipe a small dot on the center of eyes (2 chocolate chips) too.

14. Keep the cake in the fridge until serving.

I didn't take photos on cake after slice, if you wish to know how is the internal looks like, you may refer to here.

Although is not easy to churn out this cake, although the cake is not perfect and there are a lot of flaws. But I felt so satisfied after the completion of the cake, especially when I took out the cake and can hear the non-stop "wow" from my guests heeheehee.. 

I must thank Felvin for sharing her how to make Lightning McQueen car, without her step by step guide, I dun think I am able to churn up this beautiful cake. Thanks again Felvin. 

Oh I must thank dear husband too, he also helped me a lot on decorating the cake, thanks dear!