How to Make a Lightning McQueen Cake

I found the Lightning McQueen cake idea here. It's great because it gave me step by step directions. I thought I would post what I did.

This is only part of the mess from making fondant. This was my first time making it and even working with it so I am a rookie for sure. Jeni gave me the recipe for the Marshmallow fondant. Here it is:

1 bag of mini marshmallows (the bigger one)
2 T water
microwave 1 minute. stir. Do 30 sec intervals until smooth.
Add your color now- I like the gel colors because they are more vibrant

Add
2 lb powder sugar (C&H works best)
* add half of the bag and stir with spoon. Then start kneading in more powdered sugar. Knead until smooth

This can store for up to 3-4 days in refrigerator. If you do make it ahead of time and store it put a little of shortening around it and then wrap in saran wrap so it doesn’t dry out. Also, when you aren’t using all of the fondant while you are decorating the cake keep it wrapped in saran wrap as well.

When you are ready to put the fondant on the cake you need to frost your cake with a light coating of frosting so it will stick. Then when you add details and cutouts of the fondant on to the fondant use clear vanilla for the ‘glue’. (I got mine at walmart) I actually just used water, not vanilla and that worked too.

I made these colors and look how beautiful those little fondant balls look now! I made 2 batches. The first one was all red then the second one I split up to make white, yellow and black.


Bake a 9x13 cake, freeze it. Then cut into 7x11 rectangle. Cut out shape of car and add cake on top with frosting to make a cab. Cut out a divet in the front hood area to create a dip in the car. If you have a lightning McQueen car it is helpful to look at that too. The blog I followed made the spoiler out of fondant and added it last, but held it up with toothpicks. I decided to add more cake to the back and then cover it with fondant. It worked out great and I didn't have to prop it up with toothpicks.

Frost the entire car with a crumb coat.

You have to notice the mess in my kitchen! It was like a bomb had gone off. Plus, Kyle was sick and in bed and the kids were running around. It was crazy!

Roll out the red fondant like a pie crust then drape it over the car. Pat it down to stick to the frosting and to mold it to your shape, then trim off the excess. My fondant cracked and stuck to the table when I rolled it out so make sure to use lots of powdered sugar. I had to put a patch on the car to cover where it tore. Cut out windows, lights, lightning bolts, numbers and everything else with fondant. I made the wheels out of black fondant and then used a twisty straw to cut out the holes for the wheels. Then cut out little holes on the sides of the car for the tires to fit into. I turned my front tires like the blog said to. The car still had all that extra powdered sugar on it so I used a paintbrush and lightly brushed it with a tiny bit of water to get rid of the sugar. I'm not sure if you are supposed to do that or if there's any easier way.

Paint the eyes on using a paint brush and food color gel. I dipped the brush in some water then dipped it in the gel color then painted the eyes. I used blue, black and then white frosting for the dot of white in the eye. Add the Rust-eze logos with free hand writing using brown frosting and voila! Your cake is done! You can add some crushed graham crackers for dirt if you want and if your board is bigger you could roll out some black fondant for a race track to put around the car.