My son requested a Lightning McQueen cake for his birthday. I took ideas from several other cakes on this website and this is the race track cake that I came up with. It was by far my favorite and easiest cake I’ve ever made. And my three year-old son loved it. The grass took the longest but I think it really made the cake look cool. Every child and adult requested a slice with grass.
My tip is to add more powdered sugar so it’s nice and thick. It’ll stand up easier that way. But my other tip is not to worry if the blades are different lengths and if some fall over. It’ll look messy at first but just keep going; I promise it’ll look good in the end. After all, real grass is not perfect either. I just topped off the cake with homemade checkered flags (broken skewers paper and marker) and a couple of mini cars from the Disney movie. It was a hit!
Cool Race Track Cake
Cake by Anne-Karine N., Chateauguay, QC, Canada.
I was looking for a cool cake to do for my son’s third birthday and I found this website. I knew it had to be somewhat easy because it was my first attempt to a ”fancy” cake. My son loves to play cars so when I saw the race track cake from Jen G. (thanks a lot) I knew this was the cake I was going to make.
I did two two story round cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. Using Duncan Hines is so much easier for someone who can’t bake like me. I frosted them together and then did a big three in chocolate frosting. I then did the grass with the star tip and green tinted vanilla frosting. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I printed the flags on my computer and decorated with cars from the dollar store.
Everybody was impressed with this race track cake and my son loved it.
Fun Cars Themed Cake
Cake by Debra H., Far Rockaway, NY
I was doing a Disney Cars theme birthday party. I had done a centerpiece for the party and wanted a race track cake to match up. But I could not find a cake pan shaped like a three so I baked a large sheet cake and cut the shape of the three out of the middle. Then I made another large sheet pan for the base.
I cut the three in half to put strawberry filling inside and then replaced the top half of the three back onto the lower half. I piped the entire cake as shown. For effect I added the same cars to the cake that I had on the road of the centerpiece. The cake and the centerpiece were a big hit at the party.
Cool Five-Shaped Race Track Cake
Cake by Martina S., London, UK
I have used this website to give me some ideas. My little boy wanted Buzz Light year but that seemed too difficult for me to create so we settled on an easier one. This race track cake is a simple nut cake. I decorated it with icing sugar of various colors, black for tarmac and green for grass. The rest of the cake is decorated by different colour of cream and car candles.
Amazing Homemade Cake
Cake by S. Thompson., Phoenix, AZ
This race track cake was modeled after a couple of other cakes I saw on this site (thanks for the great ideas!). I took two pieces of cardboard and taped them together to create a thick base for the cake. Then I covered the cardboard with plastic fabric from a race check tablecloth.
My cake consists of a 9×13″ yellow rectangle cake with a 9″ round cake cut in half and put on each end of the rectangle. I used vanilla frosting to hold them together. The first thing I did was use a ruler to measure two inches all around from the outside edge of the cake into the middle to create my oval infield. I used toothpicks to mark my measuring points. Then I tinted white frosting green (takes a lot of drops!) and used it on the infield. I frosted the racetrack surface and the sides of my cake with chocolate frosting. I used peppermint lifesavers (you can buy them in a bag) to separate my infield from the racetrack surface. Then I used graham cracker sticks all around the outside of the racetrack.
To make the track I crushed Oreo cookies in a baggie and then used a tea strainer to separate the fine pieces from the large chunks. I spooned the fine pieces onto my racetrack surface and used the back of a metal spoon to smooth it out. I bought some checkered flag picks at OTC and a Disney Cars candle from my local store. We used my son’s toy cars (after washing of course) as the racecars. Candy letters from the grocery store spelled out Happy Birthday.
Coolest Tic-Tac Cake
I made this race track cake for my three year old son’s birthday who loves playing on his race track toy. I started by making two equal size same height round chocolate cakes then shaped one of the cakes to fit well into the other one to form a figure ‘8’. Then, I iced the cake with chocolate butter cream. Used breath mint ‘TicTac’s to outline the border and for the tracks I mixed dry coconut shreds with a dash of green color to cover the sides. I used various road signs and small cars to decorate. It’s very simple to make and I cherish the joy on my son’s face when he saw the cake.
Great Birthday Cake Idea
Cake by Rachel R., Bismarck, ND
This was a race track cake for my husband’s birthday. He loves racing so what a perfect cake for him. I made three round cakes. I laid two of them on a cookie sheet next to each other. Then, I frosted both cakes. Then cut apart the third cake to make an upward slant to one of the sides. I used a lot of cut pieces for this effect. Then I frosted the pieces to the top of one of the round cakes.
I added the black track next using a cake knife. I then added my wording and flags. The flags were made by piping the crisscrossed poles then making dots of black (black, then nothing black, then nothing, in the shape of a flag). Then I filled in the spaces where there was nothing with a white dot. I then added the edging. It was a huge hit at the party.
Helpful hints: When I make my cakes I bake them, let them cool then wrap them in cling wrap and place them on a cookie sheet in the freezer over night or two. When I take the cakes out of the freezer I immediately begin frosting them. The frosting locks in the moisture that would normally escape if it wouldn’t be frosted. It also helps you to be able to frost the cake without pieces crumbling into your frosting. Every time I’ve made a cake people have commented on how wonderfully moist the cake is. This is my tried and true advice for cake decorating. Also after frosting the cake I always place it in a refrigerator until party time.
Adorable Cars Cake
Race track cake by Robin W., Anderson, IN
My youngest son loves Cars the movie and wanted a Cars birthday. I shopped around for a Lightning McQueen cake pan. The only cake pan I found was very small. He loves to watch races so I asked him if he would like a Cars racetrack cake instead. He said yes only if there were tires in the pit. That is where the whole idea for this cake came from.
It was a very easy cake to make. It is 1/2 white 1/2 chocolate. I lightly iced the cake all white and drew the design with a cake utensil. I did checkered flag for the border. The flags on the back of the cake are made out of construction paper and resemble all the flags used in today’s races. The cars and Mac truck are parts from a toy I bought him for his birthday. And last but not least the tires in the pits I pulled of some cars from the dollar store.
Simple Race Track Cake
Race track cake by Min O., Brigham City, UT
I got this idea for a race track cake from this web site and just made modifications. It is made up of two box cake mixes. One baked in a 9″x13″ pan and the other in two 9″ round pans. I cut one of the round cakes in half and put one half on each end of the rectangle cake trimming as necessary for a good fit.
The second round cake is not needed. The “icing” is whip cream and pudding. I like that it could look imperfect and uneven and be totally fine! For the “dirt” or “track” part of the track I used one cup of milk mixed with a large box of dry Chocolate pudding mix. After stirring that together, add it to one 8 oz. container of Cool Whip. The “grass” part of the track is one cup milk mixed with one small box of dry vanilla pudding mix and adding to one 8 oz. container of cool whip and of course some green food coloring.
Finishing Touches
I added the small Oreos around the inside of the track for a little definition, looks like tires. And the regular Oreo type cookie all around the outside covers the flaws of the icing. I had to make this cake two days early so I stored it in the freezer and thawed it the day of the party. I think this added extra flavor, kept the whip cream from making it too soggy too soon. Having the Oreo cookies on there for so long made them soft (not crunchy) and they sort of integrated into the cake.
Every one loved it. (The flags and things are simple paper cutouts on toothpicks and kabob skewers, the cars are just from a toy I got at the store, the letters and candle were also store bought.)
Colorful Candy Birthday Cake
Race track cake by Diana B., pembroke, MA
Here’s my racetrack cake. I was really happy with it and my son thought he was the coolest – with the cake his mom made! I wanted to do a “car” type cake since my sons are crazy for them and saw a racetrack on this site!
To make the cake, I used two boxes of cake mix. I made two rounds with one box and a rectangle with the other box. Cut one round in half (the other round is extra and not needed) put halves on either side of the rectangle and frosted with dark chocolate frosting.
I used green and white decorating frosting to make the “grass” and track outline. I used the big gumdrop circles cut in half for the track “tires.” I took two toothpicks and a post-it and made the “finish line.” I topped the whole thing off with a couple of brand new race cars.
It was such fun and pretty easy to put together this race track cake.
Incredible Homemade 2nd Birthday Cake
Race track cake by Leslie S., Wichita Falls, TX
I took the idea for this race track cake from the other wonderful cakes on this website. I just made a simple sheet cake and printed out #2 from Microsoft Word and traced around it with a toothpick. Then, I made black frosting for the road and then sprinkled it with black sugar. I couldn’t find black sprinkles so I just used regular white sugar with a lot of black frosting coloring added to it. It looks just like asphalts.
I decided to carry the end of the road down the side of the cake so that it doesn’t look like it dead ends into grass. I made all of the flags and banners on Microsoft word, attached them to straws or toothpicks. Then, I just purchased cheap racecars for the road. It took me about two hours to decorate. My son was very excited to see his cake!
Fun Race Track Cake
I made this racetrack cake for a friend of mine. The “racetrack” was made from a 9×13 cake and a nine inch round cake cut in half and placed on the sides of the other cake. I used icing to “glue” the ends together.
I iced the cake in chocolate and covered the track area with food processed fudge Oreos with the filling removed. Then, I piped the middle area of the track with a wide yellow tip. The name was created with softening starburst in the microwave and then molding then to form the letters.
The grass was piped with a grass type decorating tip. The grass was piped to create the look of grass growing up around the name. Grass was also piped around the bottom edge of the cake. The racing flags were created from a clip art on the computer and mounting them to skinny craft sticks and coloring them black. I then placed actual die cast cars from the movie around the track. The little boy who I made this for loves the cake!
