Ferrari Formula 1 Race Car Birthday Cake

This is a great - and not actually that difficult - cake to make for anyone who likes race cars, Formula 1 and so on - whether that's your toddler nephew or your grandfather. I made this cake for my dad's 60th birthday as my sister and I were giving him a driving experience in various cars including a Ferrari around Thruxton racetrack so it seemed quite appropriate!

You can use any type of cake for this - it needs to be fairly robust so something like a dense chocolate cake or a madeira cake is good. Whatever you make, I recommend an 8 or 9 inch round cake.

If yours has risen like mine did, slice off some of the dome so the top is flat.

Slice the cake through the middle and fill, if desired.
Using a serrated knife, slice away the sides of the cake as shown, so you have a circle and then a long bit sticking out. You can draw a template on greaseproof paper and use that to cut around if you prefer. Keep the offcuts.

Add part of the offcuts to the end to lengthen the bonnet of the car and use another part cut at an angle to represent the driver's seat and the section behind it. It helps to look at pictures of Formula 1 cars, or if you have an expert in the house ask them - my fiancé was very helpful! Use buttercream to stick the sections of cake together.

Cover the whole cake with a thin layer of buttercream.

 

The next step is to cover the whole thing in fondant (roll-out icing). I used white, because I have a cake airbrushing kit and used that to spray the cake red, but if you don't have one then use red fondant. You can buy it in most supermarkets in the UK these days and don't need to go to a specialist cake shop.

 

Measure roughly how much fondant you need to go across the top and sides so you roll it out to the correct length and width, then cut off any excess. Smooth the fondant around the driver's seat.

Here's my cake airbrushing kit ready to go - it's very cool!

Always place your cake on newspaper or kitchen paper towels... it can get a bit messy!

I wanted to make the cake board look like the chequered flag and spent a little while thinking about the best way to do this. I decided the easiest thing was to completely cover a cake board in white fondant, and then cut out squares from some black fondant:

Use a little water or edible glue to attach each black square to the white board. You need to measure where each square goes - I did it by using a black square as a marker to show how much gap I needed to leave. Allow to dry.

I bought some edible icing printed pictures of the Ferrari badge - I wouldn't have the skill or the time to pipe or draw these by hand. They only cost a few pounds from Amazon.

I fixed them on with edible glue and used large balls of black fondant to make the tyres.

I made a flat, curved shape from black fondant which is the driver's seat; it looks more realistic when you see the whole cake.

There's also a wing section at the back that stands up and is used (I think) to make the car more aerodynamic. There is also one on the front but I had to get the cake into a carry case to take on the train and there was no room - it would have stuck off the edge of the cake board (as the car was at an angle on the board) and I wouldn't have been able to get the lid on. I did make the piece at the back, using cocktail sticks to secure it to the cake.

And here's the finished cake!

I'm sharing this with Formula 1 Foods, the blog challenge I have been running, in honour of the last Grand Prix race of the season.