Retro: Car Racing Track Birthday Cake

A new addition to the retro birthday cake recipes from the Women?s Weekly Children?s Birthday Cake Book. Since the previous recipes I’ve posted were a bit girl-oriented (Butterfly Cake and Ballerina Cake), this time I’ve got something for the boys: a racing car track!

After finding family photos of me as a child with the beautiful cakes my Mum made for each birthday, I decided to hunt down her copy of this book and start sharing my favourites.

I hope to keep posting more recipes from this book, if not for baking at least for childhood nostalgia. How many of you were made cakes from this book when you were a kid?

YOU WILL NEED

1 packet butter cake mix

2 quantities chocolate Vienna Cream*

20cm cake ring tin

Chocolate Bullets

Small Red lollipop (stop sign)

Toy racing cars

1 board 50cm x 30cm (20in x 12in)

Cardboard (at least 15 x 12 cm piece)

DIRECTIONS

Cake:

Make cake according to directions on packet.
Pour into greased ring tin, bake in moderate oven 35 minutes or until cooked when tested. Turn on to wire rack to cool.

Assembly:

Cut cake in half horizontally, then cut small piece from one end of each circle. This helps the two halves fit neatly together in a figure eight. Discard the cut-off pieces.
Assemble cake on prepared board.

Decorating:

Cover cakes with Vienna Cream.
Decorate edges of track with chocolate bullets. Cut two strips of cardboard about 15cm x 6cm (6in x 2.5in) to represent bridge and ramp. Cover strips of cardboard with Vienna Cream.
Place strips on cake and outline with chocolate bullets as well. Place small lollipop on cake to represent stop sign. Make flag from cardboard and stand in cake. Arrange racing cars on track as shown.

* VIENNA CREAM FROSTING

You Will Need:

125g butter

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Have butter and milk at room temperature. Place butter in small bowl of electric mixer, beat until butter is as white as possible. Gradually add about half the sifted icing sugar, beating constantly. Add milk gradually then gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar, mixture should be smooth and easy to spread with a spatula.

Chocolate Vienna Cream

Make up the basic recipe as above and add 2 tablespoons sifted cocoa to the icing sugar.

Coloured Vienna Cream

A large variety of food coloring is available from supermarkets… Start to tint Vienna Cream by dipping a skewer into the bottle of colouring, shaking off the excess, then dipping the skewer into the icing, beating well with a wooden spoon.

Notes

Pure icing sugar or icing sugar mixture can be used in Vienna Cream. Sift icing sugar through a fine sieve for best results.

Make Vienna Cream on the day it is to be used; keep covered during use as a crust will develop if it is left uncovered.

Do not refrigerate cream as this will cause the butter to harden and it may separate. For best results Vienna Cream should be applied to a cake on the day it is to be served. You can apply it the day before serving but, if you do, the cream will become slightly darker and crust in appearance.

When applying the Vienna Cream, make sure it covers the cake around the base near the board to form a seal and help keep the cake fresh.

Use a small spatula when applying Vienna Cream as this will give a smooth surface to the cake. Cream will spread easily, but if you do want a particularly smooth surface, dip the spatula in hot water, dry quickly, and use heat to spread the cream.

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