It's a Construction Party! When I first took this order, I was really overwhelmed (ie., freaked out) and all the different things that I was going to have to incorporate into one weekend.
To make matters more, um, challenging, this was the weekend that I also had the Vintage Lace Wedding Cake, the Flutterbies Butterflies Cake, the Giraffe Baby Shower Cake, my friend Kristen was here visiting, and I had a Chocolate {Hunter's} Groom's cake and a Bubble Guppies Cake (yet to be posted!). Whew!
As you can see... I was busy! First up - there was the cake with a 2D Dump Truck Cake topper. The whole party theme was loosely designed around this Construction Pals Party theme.
The 2D Dump Truck cake topper was made with fondant with Tylose added. I made it 4 or 5 days in advance so it could dry.
Then there was this smash cake - which was as much, if not more work than the "big cake". It was carved vanilla cake, filled and frosted with vanilla buttercream, then covered in yellow marshmallow fondant.
The trim on the dump truck was done with my extruder. The wheels were circles of rice cereal treats cut out with a cookie cutter then covered in black fondant. The "dirt" was crushed Oreos.
I have pics of cutting, carving and shaping this dump truck - let me know if you'd like to see them! and you can see them in this How to Carve a 3D Dump Truck Cake tutorial!
Then there were the cupcakes.
And the cookies. These were roll-out sugar cookies with marsmallow fondant decorations (and Satin Ice Black Vanilla Fondant).
And the candy apples. Blue ones. Love those! You can find the blue candy apple mix over here at Amazon. Or you can make them from scratch with this recipe.
So you see... this party was a lot of work! Here's a picture that was taken at the party by my customer...
photo courtesy of Lauren W., Brice's Mom
Oh, and the stand is this 5 tier dessert stand. It's adjustable and made from PVC, so it's super easy to wipe down and keep clean. For this party, my hubby covered the bottom tier with blue plastic and the cake board was red so it could all work together!
Do you have any questions about these cakes, cupcakes, cookies or apples? Please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer and help out
Angelia
You should know by now that we love to see all your pics and tutorials! Lol Thanks, Rose! This is SO cute and obviously took a long time! I'm sure Brice's family loved it too!
Rose
Thanks Angelia! I'll plan on posting those pics soon!
felisia
HI, MS ROSE, I LOVE SEEING YOUR WORK, AND SO FAR I'VE FOLLOW ALL YOUR STEPS, AND EVERY TIME, MY APPLE COMES OUT DEVINE, ONE QUESTION, WHATS THE BEST BLUE TO USE CLOSE TO NEON COLOR.
Rose
Probably Electric Blue by Americolor!
felisia
Ok, thanks!!:)
Jay
Hi Rose please could you tell me what colouring to use for the blue, purple,pink, and orange also what flavours to use, Lastly could you help me with the candy recipe as I will have to do it from scratch as I will outside USA. Thank you for sharing your beautiful work, most inspiring.
Jay
Sorry for the typo meant to say I live outside the USA
Rose Atwater
Hi Jay, It's been a few years since I made this cake so I don't remember all the details. I use Americolor gel colors for all of my cakes. My candy apple recipe is here: rosebakes.com/candyapples.
Megan
Oh. My. Goodness. I don't see HOW you did all THAT in just one week, let alone that PLUS MORE cakes. Wow, doing just one cake in a week totally kills me. I am impressed by your ability.
This is all so precious! I love it! The detail on your dump truck cake topper is awesome. I'd love to see the photos of how you carved and put together the smash cake. Any little boy's dream cake! I know my son would just be SOO thrilled to see one of these 🙂
How tall did you make your tiers? They seem higher than 4" with all the detail you were about to fit onto them.
Awesome, beautiful, work!
Rose
Thanks Megan!! The tiers are only 4" - 4.5". They each had 2 layers of cake with filling. I think it's just an illusion that they appear taller.
Annette
Hi there! Just want to tell you that I just love your blog! You're a big inspiration to me and I follow you on bloglovin so I'll stop buy again ;))
Rose
Thanks so much Annette! I'm always thrilled to have a new reader 🙂
Princess
I just have one simple question, how do you plan your cakes out when you have so many to make? Do you freeze then ahead? Are they all due on the same day?
Rose
I generally bake on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, depending on how many I have... the more I have, the sooner I start! After they've cooled, I often fill and crumb coat them, then freeze them until the day of decorating - usually Thursday and Friday. Most of my cakes are due on Friday and Saturday and I prioritize by what's due first, make a huge list on my white board and then decorate them one at a time in order of what goes out first to what goes out last. Sometimes I'll finish all of Friday's orders by Thursday night so I can spend Friday decorating all of Saturday's orders between delivering the Friday cakes.... I hope that helps!
Princess
This helps tremendously. Organization!! Thanks so much for your response.
Yaneri -Sweet Baker
I LOVE it Rose!!! Good grief you are soooooooo busy!!! I love to be busy like you, but I'm not sure if i could handle it baking and decorating cakes while working full time 72 hrs at the hospital plus taking care of my mom after she had knee replacement. It's been a while since I decorated cakes. I miss it 🙁 Hopefully I get back into the groove once my mom is healed and back on her feet once she's fully recovered!
I admire you Rose!!! Keep up the great awesome work!!!
Sarah Stitely
Hey Rose! You have been extremely helpful in the past with my fledgling little cake business here in South Carolina! First ... do you have any pictures of the back of this cake? I am doing a construction party for my own son's third birthday this week and am using this as inspiration if that is ok! Also, I noticed in an earlier comment that you said you crumb coat prior to freezing ... how do you wrap your cakes? And how/how long do you thaw? I have always just frozen the uniced layers but think that the crumb coat would help keep it moist! Thanks again for all of your help!
Rose
Hi Sarah! No, I just checked my files and I don't have any pics of the back of the cake :-(. It was probably pretty plain - I usually do decorations around the sides, but rarely fully decorate the back. Is there something in particular you want to see?
I don't mind AT ALL if you use my cakes as inspiration or copy them flat out... I only ask that that no one ever claim my photos/cakes as their own work!! But if you copy it exactly and share it - I'm the first to be happy for you =)
I fill and crumb coat the cakes, then pop them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Then I get them out and wrap them with plastic wrap (2-3 layers) or a layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil. If I'm baking more than a week in advance (which is rare, but I do occasionally), then I always use 2-3 layers of plastic wrap AND a layer of foil. For thawing, I usually just set them out on the table an hour or so before I plan to start working. Or I move them from the freezer to the frig the night before and let them thaw that way, the decorate straight out of the frig.
Yes, I think that by coating in frosting, you do hold more moisture in and it saves SO much time to have them already stacked a head of time!
Happy to help!!
Sacha
How did you create the 2D fondant topper?
If you create another 2D fondant topper, similar to the topper above, could you possibly do a tutorial?
I feel awful asking.
Cake looks fabulous though!
Rose
There's really not a short answer. I printed out the image and did an outline of it. I cut out one solid piece of fondant and used that as a base, then I cut out all the different colors/pieces like a puzzle and put it together on top of that solid base piece. Maybe that will help a little!?
Sacha
Another question relating to freezing cakes... Does it sgnificantly compromise the freshness of the cake? (does that make sense?)
Rose
I freeze cakes all the time and I do not think it affects the freshness or flavor of the cake.
Krystal
Can you please send directions for candy apples.
Rose
I added the link for where I bought the mix up there in the post and I simply followed the directions on the bag!
Linda had a little Lamb
Those blue candy apples look very cute. Too cute to eat. Ha! Ha!
Rose
Thank you!
Szilvia
Hi Rosie
Your 3D dump truck cake is sooo cute. I've never worked with fondant before and am considering trying to follow your recipe for my sons 2nd birthday. How difficult is this cake to make. You make it look so easy but I'm sure I will look like a hot mess as soon as I can get started. Is there anything you would suggest to cut out to simplify? Can a newbie handle this? Thanks sooo much
Szilvia
Rose
Hi! It really depends on your skill level. It's not a super hard cake to do, but I'm not sure it's the best cake to attempt if you've never used fondant. Let me know if you try 🙂
Heather Collins
I'm doing a construction themed cake this coming weekend, along with construction hat cake pops! I have to make a cake or rice krispy truck topper (not very large--maybe 4-5 inches in length). Dread doing that, but after reading your blog post here, I have a little hope!
Rose
I hope it all turns out great for you!
Janet Healey
Hi Rose,
I've had my baking business going for almost a year now and just started getting into fancier cakes. I was wondering about freezing cakes. You said that sometimes you freeze cakes (frosted or unfrosted) and bring them out later to decorate. What I want to know is: How do you wrap them? How do you thaw them? (with wrap on or off, how long, etc) 🙂
I often read about people baking ahead of time and freezing but I am afraid of ending up with a sweaty cake. How do I do it right?
Thanks!!
Rose
I rarely freeze anymore, but when I did, I'd wrap them in plastic wrap, then foil, then freeze. I'd take them out and put them into the frig to thaw, then frost them while cold. I never had any trouble with them getting sweaty or yucky.
Veronica
I searched blue candy apple mix but could not find, can you help? Love idea of purple, blue,... apples.
Kayla
Hey,just wondering how to make the candy apples without the mix
Thanx, Kayla
Rose
Here's my recipe: How to Make Candy Apples Any Color
Maheen
Alternatively, you can also melt down blue raspberry jolly ranchers. It won't have the same color, but I think you can make it pretty close by adding white gel food coloring.
shanita
Have a question when i add the white and color gel to the mixtures the white always creeps up the side of the wall, and then white specks appear when the apple is dipped. What am I doing wrong?
MomOf2
This is the same issue I just encountered. Once I dipped my apples, there weren't any white specks.
MomOf2
Good afternoon
MomOf2
Today was my first time trying your recipe. The texture of the candy on the apple was just right. Problem is, that was the ONLY thing right.
Please help me to find out where I went wrong. First of all, there were white specks all in the mix. Once I dipped the apples, that went away, so no prob there. Secondly, I think I "burned" the mix!!! I had a pretty purple in gone beginning, but once it got to the hard crack stage, they turned a dark green.
Khadijah Johnson
My Question is how do you make your candy apples so like that...
Do you have a recipe for those kind of candy apples...My candy apples are made the old fashion way and you can see though them, like the hard candy look.... please help..
Rose Atwater
Sure - my recipe/post is here: http://rosebakes.com/how-to-make-hot-pink-candy-apples-or-any-other-color-orange-blue-purpl/