My eldest son loves Lightning McQueen, so for his third birthday, I was up for the challenge! It was my first fondant cake, and hopefully not my last. The cake is chocolate (a dense chocolate that is easy to shape). I made a few pans so that I had ample cake to work with. I froze the cake and then carved into a car (free hand). I then frosted the cake and returned to the freezer. On the night before the party I did the final decoration, including making the fondant.
Fondant is fun to work with, but not red fondant! I had to use an incredible amount of red Wilton coloring to get it to be red. At 2 a.m., this car was pink! I spent a very long time trying to get the right color, and given the size of the fondant required, it was a very difficult task.
I coloured and cut other pieces of fondant to form the eyes, head lights, windows – just free hand. I used some orange colour spray for tinting on various pieces. The wheels were made out of chocolate cupcakes covered in a black/charcoal fondant.I placed the cake on a ‘checkered flag’.
The look in my little boy’s eyes and the smile on his face will be forever etched in my memory. He was so incredibly excited. It made every minute of the wee hours of the morning worth it. My goal was for him to recognize it as Lightning McQueen, and he sure did!!
