Ann Reardon

Truck Birthday Cake How To

truck cake construction party

“Truck truck” a cute little nearly two year old voice said when I asked him what type of cake he would like for his birthday. The next day the response was ‘raa raa’.  He swapped back and forth between the two answers like he was playing ping pong.  So the final decision came down to what he said on the day I started making it.

When it was finished and in the fridge he said saw it, smiled a beaming smile and then said ‘yuck yuck’.  It took me a moment to realize he thought it had real dirt on it, which I have to agree would be yuck yuck. After giving him a quick explanation and a little taste of ‘dirt’ he loved his ‘truck truck’.

To make your dump truck cake you will need:

* The fondant and cake cutting template

 

* 1 kg (2.2 pounds) white fondant (colour it to make 900g (31.75 ounces) yellow and 100g (3.53 ounces) light grey, to make the light grey mix a little of the black fondant with the white).

* Yellow gel food colouring

* 1.5kg (3.31 pounds) Black fondant (you will have approximately 200g (7.05 ounces) left over, store in two ziplock plastic bags for a later date).

* Thick cardboard to support the cake

* Aluminium foil

* Cake board.  The one I used was 45cm (17.72 inches) x 40cm (15.75 inches)  Tip: make sure it will fit in your fridge before you put the cake on it.

* double quantity of this moist chocolate cake

* ganache (see details further down in step 5)

* non stick baking paper

* isomalt or sugar for windows

* 2 packets of oreos for dirt

*silver luster dust

*rolling pin, knife & pizza cutter for cutting the fondant

* optional rock candy geodes for in the back of the truck

* rectangle cake tin Cake Tin Rectangle Extendable (or see video for alternative) slightly bigger than the cake template.

Step 1. Make the fondant details. This can be done up to a month ahead. You will need to leave at least a few days for the fondant to dry out before you want to decorate the cake. The downloadable template gives you a guide to cut out all the ‘make ahead’ fondant pieces. Watch the video for instructions.

Step 2. Once the fondant has dried hard make the centre of the wheels. This can be done ahead.

Step 3. Cover your cake board and make your cardboard cake board in the shape of the template.

Step 4. Make your chocolate cake. I used a double quantity of this chocolate cake recipe and baked it at 150°C (302 degrees Fahrenheit) for 3 hours 20 minutes. Place an empty baking tray on a shelf above it to shield the top for heat. Check that it is cooked through to the centre by inserting a knife into the middle. You can do this the day before you want to decorate your cake (ie 2 days before the party). Once it is completely cool cover in plastic wrap to store.

Step 5. Make your ganache and leave in the fridge overnight. The start of the chocolate cake recipe video shows you how to make ganache. For the consistency of ganache on this truck I used 875g (30.86 ounces) chocolate, a mixture of milk and dark chocolate, with 320 millilitres (10.82 fluid ounces) cream (35% fat).  If you are not covering the rocks in the back of the truck in ganache you will only need half as much.

truck cake ann reardon

Step 6: Cut out and decorate your cake (either on the day of the party or the day before the party depending on the time of day). Full instructions on the video.  Store in the fridge until ready to use. (If making ahead do not add your truck tray until the day of the party or it may crack or split when it becomes moist in the fridge).

Step 7: Fill your isomalt windows and add to the cake.  If using sugar not isomalt follow the sugar decorations recipe. Do this on the day of the party.  This cake should make 30-35 serves depending on how you cut it.

Step 8: Take a photo and upload it in the comments section below.

truck cake how to cook that

Popping sugar traffic cones: Use a traffic cone toy and reusable food grade casting gel to make a mold of your traffic cone.  Melt some candy melts or nestle white chocolate melts and colour using oil based red and yellow food colouring.    Fill the mold, wait a until it starts setting a little and tip it out.  Fill the middle with popping sugar or filling of choice.  Seal off the top with more melts.  Set in the fridge or freezer and then tip push out of the mold.

construction party food

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.

110 Comments View Comments

  1. Success!

    • wow, what a lovely cake, well done!

  2. Love this template… I did it slightly different

    This was for a quarry owner so ” blocks are is thing”

    Many many thanks

    Best regards

    • That is brilliant, I reckon that’s the best cake of his life. Well done!

  3. Can you tell me about what the finished size is of the cake?

    • hi steph, you can actually print the template bigger or smaller depending on how large you want the cake.

  4. can i use bette crocker icing instead of the ganache?

    • hi,

      i used the ganache recipe for the placing the main fondant, but for the last minute fondant decorations i used betty crocker icing (funnel, bucket, drivers cab etc.

      • that looks amazing!!

    • hi kayla, yes you can do that

  5. I’ve never really worked with fondant except for little accent pieces. You make this look very easy and wanted to make it for my son’s birthday. In your opinion, do you think an amateur would be able to make this? And which fondant recipe do you think would taste the best and be the easiest to work with? Thanks in advance for your response!!

    • hi,

      i have never worked with fondant before, but i think mine turned out pretty awesome! i used pettinice pre-coloured icing i found it great to work with but i recommend making the bucket 4 weeks in advance in the hot seasons because i made mine 1 week in advance and it didn’t hold up for very long at the venue. Although the decorations i made a month in advance didn’t budge.
      also i used caramel flavouring for the yellow fondant and that went down a treat!

      • What type of fondant did you make to use on the dump truck cake?

        • Hi Jackie I use a variety of brands of fondant and then for this one I bought white and coloured it with yellow gel colour

    • Hi Korey, yes i think if you follow the instructions and use the template it should work for you. I like Duff fondant but I use many different brands.

  6. HOw do I order the templates

    • Hi Teresa, just click on the ‘Add to Cart’ in the post above

  7. Thank you so much! These templates just saved the day! Great videos.

    • thanks Christy

  8. Hi Ann

    Silly question but in your choc cake recipe it says you need 8eggs, does that mean I will need 16eggs for the dump truck cake?

    Thank you

    • yes that’s correct

  9. Hi Ann
    Thanks again. Everybody loved the cake. One of the children thought it was a toy. 🙂

    • that looks amazing Juna!

  10. hi ann
    i just brought your truck template and cant wait to try it for my nephews 5th birthday this weekend. So wrapped that it was the first tutorial that i looked at and it came with templates and all. ooohhhh so exctied to try it, cant wait.
    Great tut, thank you soooo much, you work looks brilliant and i look forward to seeing what else you have on your website.
    thanks

    • all the best with making the cake and happy birthday to your nephew.

  11. Hi Ann,

    I just purchased your templates & am very excited to try this. I know you mentioned your cake fed 20ppl, we have 50 coming to the party. Do you think the truck would be too heavy to sit on top of a slab cake? I’m just trying to figure out how I can feed more people.

    Thanks!

    • Hi Luisa, you could sit it on top of a slab cake if you put a cake board under it like you would with a tiered cake Or enlarge the template and make a bigger truck

    • hi luisa
      i believe that the birthday cake is the statement of the party and the size/quantity doens’t necessarily have to be enough to feed everyone, its the look of the cake that you want to stand out. You usually have other desserts and find that people only want a small piece of birthday cake. everytime i have have made cakes smaller than the amount of guest i still manage to have lots of party cake left over. my family is obsessed with desserts, but if your not having lots of other desserts maybe just make another small cake or cupcakes to feed more people.

  12. Hi Ann

    Thank you very much for your detailed Dump truck tutorial. I have purchased your templates. My son loved your dump truck cake when I showed him. His birthday is this month, so I am so glad to found your website just on time. Thanks again.

    Cheers
    Juna from NZ

    • Hi Juna, have fun baking 🙂

      • Hi Ann

        Can I leave the cake at room temperature because the party place is quite far away from our home (about one hour drive)?

        Many thanks
        Juna

        • Hi Juna, it depends on how hot it is, I would transport it with the back tray part of the cake seperate and assemble it there to be safe.

          • Thanks Ann, I think the same as you.
            I just want you to know you are a beautiful person inside and outside. Thank you so much for taking a time to make videos for us.

            God bless you
            Juna

          • Thanks Juna

  13. Hi Ann,
    Just want to let you know I love your channel and watch all your videos. I have been decorating cakes for about 2 years or so now and you have taught me so many skills and hints to make my cakes just that much better.

    I have just downloaded your tip truck template and as i am trying to replicate a NSW RFS fire truck, do you think this templete would be easy to alter?

    And is isomalt easy to work with or do you recommend having a few tries at it before i make my windscreen and windows?

    Thanks keep up your amazing video you are an amazing decorator
    Hannah 🙂

    • Hi Hannah, If I were you I’d printout some pictures fo the actual truck you want to make and use that as your template instead. The firetruck is quite different. And the wheels from the lightning macqueen cake tutorial might be better for it.

  14. hi, love your recipies.
    please advise where can I purchase the food grade casting gel.

    thank you

  15. Hi Ann,
    We are making a truck cake for my sons 3rd Birthday. The fondant is done I just have to make the cake. I was wanting to start decorating the cake two days before the party. Is this advisable?? and if so, can I store it in the fridge until the day of the party? Cheers.

    • hi kriskell, if you need to make your cake that far ahead then make sure you use some simply syrup to keep it moist – see the princess cake video for how-to do that. I would recommend that you do not put the back scoop on until the day of the party but the rest will be fine in the fridge.

  16. Hi, I am interested in ordering the dump truck template. I am wondering how many people does the cake roughly feed?
    Thank you 🙂

    • Hi Jaime, It depends how big you cut the slices we had 20 people at the party and there was plenty but we also had lotsof other food so by the time we got to cake people didn’t want large slices.

      • Thank you 🙂

  17. Hi Ann!
    Thanks so much for your great tutorial. It worked perfectly. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.

    • Awesome, I love it thanks for sharing your cake picture with us you did a wonderful job.

  18. Hi Ann, I tried to make you dump truck for my sons birthday. Just wanted some pointers for next time. I found my tray ( back of the truck) broke. I made it a week before i made the cake. I used satin ice fondant, not sure were i went wrong. Apart from that it turn out ok for my first attempt at a cake that is up on a stand.

    • hi kimbly well done, If the back of the tray broke you have hidden it well as I can’t tell from the picture, your cake looks great. You made it a week before so I imagine it should have been fully dry by then. Was it still moist?

      • Hi Ann, the tray didn’t break until a few hours later after this photo was taken. Just before i served it up for my son. i didn’t put any tylose or hardening agent in the fondant. could that be the reason it broke. Or the weather was very wet that day. I really enjoyed making this cake. Thank you so much for your tutorials there wonderful. My son loved it either way he was so excited.

        • That is disappointing, Not sure on that one, I have not had fondant that is set hard go soft again unless it has got very wet.

  19. My girlfrind and I worked on creating your Dump truck cake and I want to share with you the picture of our first attempt.

    • Hi Christian, This looks fantastic great job, I will have to do a youtube video with pics of everyones creations 🙂

  20. Hi Ann, you are definitively an artist. I just purchased the truck templates from your site. I would like to ask you, for how much would you sale this cake? Thanks!

    • Hi Christian, How much you charge for a cake like this depends on which country you are from, I suggest looking at websites for cake decorators or cake artists in your country and base your prices on detailed 3D cakes.

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