Coolest Fire Truck Birthday Cake

My 2 year old son is obsessed with fire trucks! He requested a fire truck cake for his birthday and mom came through with a great Fire Truck birthday cake.

Before starting the cake, I constructed a platform to raise it up off the cake board. I did this to give it the illusion that it’s actually riding on the Oreo cookie wheels. I cut a piece of cake board to fit the bottom of the cake. I stacked this on top of a piece of wood wrapped in aluminum foil. The wood piece matched the length of the cake but not the width to prevent you from seeing it when looking at the cake. It raised this up to the height of the Oreo wheels. The entire thing sat on another larger wood piece that was also wrapped in foil. I decorated the base at the end, but more on that later.

I baked one vanilla cake and two chocolate cakes using a loaf pan. I cut the vanilla cake in half length wise and glued them together with frosting to create the front of the truck. I constructed the back of the truck by stacking the two chocolate loaf cakes on top of each other and cutting a small chunk out of the top one. Once again, everything is glued together with frosting.

I used gel food coloring to create vibrant frosting colors. The entire cake is covered in bright red frosting. I used a hot knife technique to smooth out all the frosting. After frosting the cake, I glued three Oreo cookies on each side for wheels. Then I used a large tip to pipe silver trim around the bottom of the truck and around the wheels. I also piped a dot of frosting in the center of each wheel to act as a hubcap. The silver frosting also separates the front and back sections of the truck. I piped a yellow stripe down the side of each cake and then I added white windows trimmed in black. I also used black trim with a small tip (Wilton #5) to pipe details like doors on the side of the truck. I glued two licorice sticks on each side of the cake to act as hoses.

I piped white windows outlined in black with black windshield wipers on the front of the truck. I also piped a yellow fire fighter emblem with a black 2 in the center. I went with engine two since it was my son’s second birthday. I glued yellow M&Ms on for headlights.

I piped RBFD (RB = my son’s initials, Fire Department) on the back. I also piped a larger fire fighter emblem with another 2. I placed red and yellow M&Ms on the back for the brake and reverse lights.

On the top of the front of the truck, I used red and yellow gum drops for sirens. I alternated three red and two yellow in the very front and then put two red on the back of the truck. There is a #2 candle between the sirens. On the top of the back section of the truck, I piped two white ladders and Happy Birthday Ridley.

I used crushed Oreo’s to create a road for the truck to sit on. I put grass on both sides of the road. It is made from coconut and green food coloring.

I placed an edible fire hydrant on each side of the cake. The fire hydrant is made of a split Oreo cookie with a marshmallow in the center. The plugs on the fire hydrant are made out of two Cheerios stacked on top of each other. I glued everything together with red chocolate and then dipped the entire thing in red chocolate. The hose coming out of the hydrants are made of licorice rope. I bent the licorice so the hose would appear in the shape of a number 2. The hose nozzles are piped on frosting.

The Dalmatian dogs came from a toy store. The dogs and the candle are the only things that aren’t edible on this cake.

My son loved it! It was a ton of work but totally worth it.