Ann Reardon

How To Make a Fire Truck Cake

fire truck engine birthday cake
 

“Can I (excited gasp) have a firetruck cake for my birfday? With a ladder and, and (insert excited movements here) and a fire hose?” Big smiles. This request came as no surprise, fire trucks and fire engines take pride of place in every game whether it be in the house, sandpit, bath or the car. There must be some sort of rescue vehicle present. Preferably a firetruck with a ladder but at a pinch a yellow taxi can pass as a rescue car when back up is needed.

My baby boy is turning three! Which means this blog is also turning three. I posted the very first recipe when he was just one week old. It is amazing how little things can grow into big things in such a short space of time. While my now three year old is a big boy and wants to do everything himself, I am much the opposite. The bigger the website gets the more I am asking for help. Thus far I have programmed, coded and debugged everything on the website, but I have now reached the stage that I am going to need some help so hopefully within the next few months the website will have a bit of a makeover to make it run smoothly on all devices.

 

This cake serves 20, you can scale it up if you want to serve more.

To make the fire truck cake, you will need:

* The Fire Truck Template

Buy$5.99

* Fondant: Light Grey 111g (3.92 ounces), Dark Grey 70g (2.47 ounces), Red 1 kg (2.2 pounds), Black 200g (7.05 ounces), White 200g (7.05 ounces), Yellow 20g (0.71 ounces), Blue 20g (0.71 ounces)
* 6 mini oreos
* Fondant extruder to make the hose (optional)
* Gold luster dust for the end of the hose (optional)
* Green food colouring for grass
* Cake:  Double the sponge cake recipe baked either in trays or in a box 25cm (9.84 inches) x 25cm (9.84 inches) x 10cm (3.94 inches) deep. If baked in a large tin or box expect it to take at least 2 hours to bake. Only use boxes that do not use glue and do not have plastic laminated shiny pictures on them.
* Frosting double recipe of frosting of your choice, I used the french buttercream. See the recipes and taste tests for seven different frostings.
* Cake leveller or serrated knife to cut the cake
* Cake board to put the cake on, the one I used was 25cm (9.84 inches) x 38cm (14.96 inches)
* Firm cardboard to support the base of the firetruck
fire engine cake ideas reardon

2014

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

200 Comments View Comments

  1. Hi Ann,
    Thank you for the template and video. I made it for my Sons 3rd Birthday. He loved it.

    • Great work Julie.

  2. Hi, I can’t seem to find the fire truck cake template anywhere on the howtocookthat site.

    • hi, just click on the blue “Buy It Now” button on this page?

  3. Hello,
    I would love to make this for a friend’s son’s birthday this weekend, he requested a fire truck cake! I purchased it last night via Paypal but haven’t received an email with the template as of yet. Also, I only have one 12X12 or one 9X13 pan. Which do you recommend and how many of each?
    Thank you!!

    • Hi Michelle, the download link appears immediately on screen when the purchase is completed. The email is sent as back up. If you have seen neither it is possible that the purchase didn’t go through properly or the email address was incorrectly entered. I will refer you to our customer care team to see if they can sort it for you. They will be in touch shortly. Just check your email filter as well in case the email has been sent to you.

  4. How many days in advance can I make this cake? Is Tuesday for Saturday too early?

    Also I’m just about to purchase the template but I need to scale the cake up to feed 30 people, how can I do this?
    Thank you

    • Hi Jodi, I think Tuesday is a little too early, though you could make the fondant details a week in advance (ladder etc) so they can dry out. Making the cake a day or 2 ahead is plenty. To cater for 30 easily, I would make a Firehouse building (or similar) to go with it.

  5. This cake was a lot of fun to make and my son, along with all of the party guests loved it. So many small details to work on that made it look awesome and were heaps of fun to make. I used the chocolate fudge grooms cake recipe from Wilton’s website (adding an extra 1/4 of each ingredient to the recipe) and baked it in a 10″×10″ tin. Iced with a chocolate buttercream frosting.
    I made my own fondant (marshmallow) as I do not like the taste of the store bought ones and it always has people coming back for more. 🙂
    Thank you so much for the template.
    I’m not sure if it was my phone but I couldn’t pause the tutorial video as I went so had to keep on playing it. I found the video very useful as I am suffering from a huge case of baby brain. Cake decoraring sure is interesting when you are 8 months pregnant and needed a massage once it was done from all the fondant work but it was well worth it.

    • Hi Anne, Your fondant work is so neat. Your cake looks amazing!

  6. Thank you Ann for another awesome cake tutorial! After Cars cake last year, my son wanted a fire truck cake this year. And so it was perfect that you had a fire truck cake on your website! I scaled down the size of the cake though and only used half the recipe. It turned out perfect for our family of 5.

    • Looks fabulous Sabrina. Great baking!

  7. Thank you for the template and the video! My Son loved his cake for hist 3th Birthday! Greetings from Austria! 🙂

    • Great work Carina!

  8. Hello, can i also use the Choclate Cake Recipe for the Firetruck? Double? Thank you 🙂

    • Hi Carina, Yes you can and yes use double.

  9. Hi
    I just paid for downloading the templete.
    but may I know what is the real dimension of the firetruck cake?
    because during printed out, the pdf file resize and look tiny.
    measured by ruler, the TopView dimension 15cm x 6cm… is this correct size?
    thanks

    • Hi PK law as long as the printer is not scaling the pDF it should print out at the correct size. It does sound like it is shrinking the image. Set your printer to print at actual size.By the time the cake has been assembled and decorated it will be larger than the diagram appears

  10. Hi this is fantastic! I’m doing a fireman Sam cake for my sons birthday, one question what did you do with the cardboard cutouts you use to rest the cake on or do they stay there?

    • Hi Rachael, the cardboard supports stay in place on your cake board.

  11. Hi Ann,
    where can I get the template for the cake? and how to print it? regular?

    • Hi Boujo, You can purchase this template via the Buy it Now button or via the STORE tab on the menu.

  12. Hi,

    Is it possible to make this using the chocolate sponge recipe from the Thomas train cake? Also can the cake be made and decorated entirely the day before eating?

    Many thanks!

    • Hi Annie, Yes you can.

  13. Thank you to you and your son for enabling me to create my little girl’s birthday wish this year. A few things didn’t go exactly to plan but no matter, she loved it & ppl enjoied eating. Greetings from London.

    • Looks amazing Maz!

    • Hi Maz
      Your cake looks amazing. Would you mind telling me where you bought most of the products. I am in London too and am struggling with some of them. Did you go to standard supermarkets or lakeland?
      The hose looks great with the gold. What did you use?

      Many Thanks

  14. Hello again, just to be clear – I should double the cake recipe ie a total of 14 eggs? Then bake that in two 25cm tins, and this will take two hours? Sorry if I’m asking daft questions, just don’t want to make a mistake! Thank you again x

  15. Hello – am making this for my little boy’s second birthday! Can you please tell me how I would adjust your sponge recipe to make it a chocolate cake? How much cocoa powder should I swap in? Thank you x

    • Hi N, Use Ann’s best chocolate cake recipe instead. It will work well: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/chocolate-cake-recipe/ . Double the quantity and either cook in as many trays as you need or in a box 25 x 25 x 10cm. If you cook a single cake in a deep box it will take a couple of hours. If you do the cake in trays then it will usually be around 20 mins depending on the depth of the tray. Just test each tray to see if the cake is cooked. Then cut the cake according to the template and layer up to form your truck.

  16. I want to try and make the fire truck cake
    Do you deliver to Australia?

    • Hi Naomi, Templates are downloadable on line.

  17. Just wanted to say thank you for this, My friend asked for a firetruck cake for her sons 4th birthday and this template and tutorial was perfect! I did change the details a little because she wanted a NSW fire truck rather than Fireman Sam – have attached a pic 🙂

    • Gourgeos! Well done Sam!

  18. Hi Anne
    Love this Cake
    This is the second cake i have ever made or iced i found your tutorials are so easy to follow 🙂 I gave the cake to a friends little boy he loved it so much that his mum has asked me to make one for his birthday.
    The first cake i used a 8″ square tin which involved a lot of cutting into layers this time i want to try a 9″x13″ tray bake can you advise me on a recipe and baking time for this size tin ?

    • Hi Rita, Great job on this cake. If you are making the same cake, the recipe will be the same, but you will need to adjust the cooking time to suit your tray. It will work similarly to the original recipe but you are layering up a little more. I would bake 3 trays at 9 x 13. Test your cake layers using a skewer or knife to determine when they are cooked through.

  19. When I print the pattern is prints a lot smaller than the size of the cake you are talking about. what can I do to make sure that the pattern comes out the right size?

    • Just make sure your printer is set to print at 100%. It should print over several pages and then you just piece it together at the right size.

      • Hi, I am planning to make this cake this weekend (Looks amazing!!!)
        Just to make sure….. what is the dimension of the base of the cake ?

  20. Hi, I just ordered the template. I had a question can I prepare all the fondant decoration two days before eating the cake?
    Can I also make the buttercream the night before eating it and spread it on the cake? I will keep it in the fridge overnight before I finish it in the morning. Thanks in advance

    • Hi Ferrand, You can make most fondant pieces a couple of days out so they can dry out. I would leave the hose part of the firehose until you assemble the cake. If you make the cake and cover entirely with buttercream the day prior and refrigerate, you could then do the fondant decorating the next morning.

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