How to make a fire truck cake

Prepare Frostings

• Spoon ½ cup of white vanilla frosting into small bowl and stir in enough black food coloring to create desired shade of gray. Fill pastry bag (or a small resealable food storage plastic bag with the bottom corner snipped).
• Spoon 2 cups of  white vanilla frosting into large bowl and stir in enough red food coloring to create desired shade of red.  Tip: to achieve a deep shade of red, use gel or paste food coloring and allow to sit overnight.
• Place ½ cup of the remaining white vanilla frosting in a pastry bag (or a small resealable food storage plastic bag with a bottom corner snipped).

Assemble Fire Truck Cakes

• Trim domed tops off of cooled 8x4-inch cakes to make a flat surface. Using the fire engine cake template as a guide, cut cakes and arrange pieces on platter as follows:
• Place one trimmed 8x4-inch cake on serving platter/tray/covered cardboard.
• Trim about 1/8 off of the second 8x4-inch cake and place on top of the first layer, making sure to line up the back edges.
• Cut the third 8x4-inch cake in half and place on cut ends to create the cab of the truck.
• Connect all the pieces with frosting and crumb coat entire cake with red frosting. 

Decorate Fire Truck Cake

• Apply final coat of red frosting to entire birthday cake.
• Using the pastry bag filled with gray frosting, pipe gray frosting into the section connecting the front and back of the fire truck and smooth with an off-set spatula.
• Place chocolate sandwich cookies on the cake to make the wheels and pipe on hubcaps with gray frosting.
• Pipe gray frosting around entire base of the birthday cake and over the tires. Pipe an extra line of frosting on the front and rear of of the cake to create the bumpers.
• Pipe windows onto the front and sides of the truck cab with white frosting and smooth with offset spatula.
• Pipe ladder on top of fire truck.
• Place black licorice wheels on the rear, sides of the truck to create fire hoses.
• Trim and discard a thin slice (about 1/8 of an inch) off bottoms of 4 red and 4 yellow gumdrops; attach trimmed gumdrops for headlights and taillights with white frosting.  Attach remaining gumdrops to top of truck for lights.

This fire truck birthday cake recipe serves 12.

Three 8x4-inch cakes (baked in loaf pans)
2 containers Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting or 4 cups of homemade buttercream
Black food coloring
Red gel or paste food coloring
10 red chewy fruit-flavored gumdrops (not sugar coated)
4 creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
2 pieces black licorice wheel candy

Platter, tray or wrapping paper-covered cardboard (about 14x10 inches)