Transportation Birthday Cake

Last year my son's first birthday cake was rather impromptu. A carrot cake with a cream cheese icing (meant for it to be a frosting, but the more icing sugar I added, the thinner it got; the cream cheese must be different in England than the states). So this year, I wanted to do something special for his second birthday. I felt like being creative, and came with the idea for his cake a couple of months ago. I had a picture of it in my mind, and at one point I even made a blueprint of it, marking what I would use for each component. This is the first cake I've really decorated, and I don't think it's too bad for my first time. My boy loves trains and cars, so I wanted to incorporate both in the cake. I used toy cars and train because that was easier than trying to make them out of something (I did toy with the idea of shaping cars out of marzipan, and making a train out of mini swiss rolls). As it turned out, that was a good idea, because the kids loved playing with the cars after the cake was cut.

Making the cake was quite an adventure. I prepared the toppings a couple of days in advanced. The road is crushed Oreo cookies (without the cream filling), the dirt under the train is crushed rich tea biscuits (similar to animal cookies they have in the States), the grass is dessicated coconut with green food coloring, and the train track is sliced dates.

After searching for recipes for the cake and frosting, I decided on a zucchini cake. I changed it a bit (1 cup granulated sugar and 1 cup brown sugar; one cup oil, and a squeeze of lemon juice). I baked it in a 9 x 13 pan, and it took longer than 25 minutes. The pan I used was warped, and the cake came out uneven (one corner was half the thickness of the rest of the cake!) It looked pretty funny, so I decided to make another cake, and layer them to even it out. That worked out pretty well, but we ended up with a huge cake. Plenty for everyone, and then some!

The other adventure was with the frosting. I am not a huge fan of the regular butter creme frosting inches thick on top of cakes, so I wanted to try something different. I tried finding a recipe for the kind of frosting they use on the Costco cakes (which I couldn't really find). So I decided to try a Bavarian cream style frosting from Eating Well (great magazine). It uses part whipped cream, and part milk/gelatin mix. After I added the whipped cream to the gelatin mix, I decided it probably wouldn't be enough for my enormous cake, so I added some vanilla yogurt too, hoping that it would still set up. Even after being in the fridge all night, it didn't set. So, the morning of the party, I went with plan B, and made a butter cream frosting using butter, icing sugar, and the cream mixture that didn't set. It actually turned out pretty well, and tasted pretty good. I made it thinner than normal frosting, which was fine, since I covered the cake with other toppings.

The cake was a success. I was pretty excited with the final product, and the cake itself tasted really good.

Here's the recipe for the cake with my changes:

Zucchini Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar and 1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups grated zucchini
1 tsp lemon juice

..DIRECTIONS
1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a 9 x 13 pan with baking paper.
2.In a medium size bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, white sugar, and salt. Mix well.
3.In another bowl beat eggs, vegetable oil, lemon juice and vanilla together. Pour egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix well. Stir in the shredded zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4.Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 25 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched, and knife/toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.