Boy turned 4 recently. Okay, let me stop right there and take a deep breath… Where on earth does the time go?!! Four is such a fabulous age. I call him my ‘little big’ boy now!

Like any four-year old boy, he loves cars. And when I say loves, I really mean it. It is his first love. His eyes light up, there is a skip in his step and his words come out in a high-pitched tumble. He becomes really excited!

While planning his birthday, all he wanted were cars everywhere – gifts, decor and on the cake! I searched high and low (i.e, in all the stores) for a decent race car themed cake. And mind you, the ‘baby’ Disney Cars just won’t do. Hot Wheels are the way to go! So, I DIM-ed. What’s that, you ask? Did-it-myself, silly!

I made this 8-in round cake for a little celebration at home, I hope to find a larger one from a store in time for his big party. Now, this cake can be scaled to a bigger size, if you wish. I do not wish to undertake that right now.

I got the idea for this cake originally from Pinterest. But, I am unable to find the original source. The link just goes to a picture, not a website. If anyone knows the origin of the pin, I’d be happy to give due credit.

And here is how mine turned out.

I can bake a cake, but I am no expert decorator. Heck, I don’t even own an offset spatula. Gasp! (Cue: collective head-shaking by self-respecting members of the blogging community and moms who bake cakes.)

Still, it turned out to be a decent cake, which goes on to show how easy it is! I settled on a simple vanilla cake with light whipped cream frosting, because it has lesser sugar and we are fans of its light, fluffy, cloud-like texture.

To make this cake, you will need:

• A round cake – vanilla, chocolate or any firm cake that takes well to frosting.
• Whipped cream frosting – I used up a tub of Cool Whip for my 8-in cake.
• Food color of choice (if desired)
• Oreo cookies
• M&Ms or other such candy
• Twizzlers – 2 sticks (for the track)
• Race cars and such decorations

How to: 

It is a simple cake and I think the picture is self-explanatory. Still, for the sake of clarity, let me explain what I did.

• Bake the cake and cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to firm it up. Take a look at my cake recipes for inspiration.
• You can crumb coat the cake if you are using a richer buttercream frosting. But I skipped this as I used whipped cream.
• Add desired food color to the cold whipped cream and mix gently till evenly colored. I have found that gel food color works best for whipped cream. Don’t forget to get the color approved by the guest of honor!
• Frost the cake and smooth it as best as you can. The beauty of a homemade cake lies in the slight imperfections. To frost, place a big blob of frosting on the top and start smoothing it to the edges and sides. The sides do not need to be too perfect as we’ll be covering it with Oreo cookies.
• To make the dirt, place a few Oreo cookies (sans the cream) in a Ziploc bag and pound on it with a rolling-pin or wooden spoon.
• Arrange the Twizzlers sticks to resemble a curvy road and fill the space in between with the crushed Oreo dirt.
• Arrange Oreo cookies on the sides of the cake and some candy along the top edge. Refrigerate the cake till ready to use.
• Place the cake toppers (cars, traffic lights, race flags, etc) as desired.

It was such a pleasure to see his eyes light up when we brought out the cake that night! The only thing I should have done differently would be to place the candies right before serving, as the colors bled a little. Oh, well! He didn’t mind at all.

Let me break my own rule of no personal photos on the blog to show you his reaction. It was priceless!

Did you notice my nifty little cake stand in the first picture? I was looking for a fun cake stand and while most of the ones out there are quite elegant and stylish, they are… how shall I put it? A bit girly. Nothing that would impress a four-year old boy.

So, I improvised. I simply filled a large-ish clear glass vase with small cars and placed a decorative glass plate on top to hold the cake. Ta-da! The perfect cake stand for a boy!

You could glue them together to make a more stable stand, but seriously, which boy would willingly give up his cars for a cake stand?

Personalizing a birthday celebration makes it all the more fun, don’t you think?

I will be posting more birthday party details later on. So, what do you think of the cake? Do you have a special boy in your life? Go on and make him happy!

Check out this post to see last year’s birthday party decor.

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I am linking this up at October Before & After Party at Thrifty Decor Chick and at these awesome blogs.

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