[make: CARS Racing Track Cake]

You'd THINK that Josiah would be keen to have something different for his birthday party.  You know - maybe a pirates theme, or Mickey Mouse, or Little Einsteins.  Something other than Cars??  It's always Cars ... his playtime, his room, his birthdays ... ah well.  I guess it's his thing *grin*.

The only cakes I've made have had a "Cars" theme - aside from the ghastly bowling cake I attempted for Tias this past year. Tias was the first one to fancy the little red racing car named Lightning McQueen -  ... and yet, here I found myself doing it again.  Siah wanted a "fast-race-track-cars-Piston-cup-cake".  Oh dear.

I had no clue where to start, so I baked 2 nine inch rounds with chocolate cake as my first step.  Then I stared at them on and off for about 3 hours as they cooled.  I was lost as to what to do next.  So - I trimmed them both a little, so they fit together.  Then, with the cut wedges, I created the "stands" ... I trimmed them too.  Hmmm.  What next, what next ...

Then, I got out the kinked-up string licorice I had bought and started doing the "outline" of what I wanted.  I knew I wanted a race track - so I put that in.  And then I figured I'd do a "3" - since it was his third birthday.  Then I outlined the stands.

I thought that I'd make the center part "grass", so I used green sprinkles.  Then, I used fine, black sugar to spread as the ashphalt.  I used a small spoon to smooth it out right to the edges. 

I used larger confetti candy to imitate the "cars crowd" in the stands.  At first, I had thought that I might put them in individually, but that was too painfully slow for me.  I ended up just spooning them on, and pushing them into place. 

I hummed and hawed about the colour of the "3", and opted to use the colourful confetti candy to fill it in.  Then I had to break out the tweezers to pick up the teensy weensy candies that landed in the wrong spots. 

I used the small Cars characters to decorate, along with a "trophy" candle, three striped candles (for the finish line), and a couple of checkered flags.

It really didn't take long - the hardest part was deciding what to do.

I was really happy with how it turned out.  And more importantly, so did Josiah.

Have a good one!