Novelty Cupcakes – Race Car cupcakes perfect for Kids Birthday Party
Start your ovens as this race car novelty cupcake cake is sure to win you pole position at any grand prix!
The British Grand Prix may be over but for any want-to-be race car driver out there this novelty cupcake cake is sure to be a winner. I saw these cute novelty cupcakes in the What’s New Cupcake! book and thought they’d be ideal for a kids birthday party and tie in nicely with the British Grand Prix.
This was my first go at making race car novelty cupcakes and the cake is by no means perfect, but overall it looked good and the kids loved them. Having a novelty cupcake cake works out really well as it makes it very easy for the kids to take one and eat there and then, or take home with them. There’s no hassle of cutting up a big case, getting portion sizes just right and then transporting the un-used cake home.
You could even get your child to help make the cakes as overall it’s really easy and fun to do, there are just some trickier bits when it comes to creating the driver and spoilers for the car. Here is my slightly adapted version of how to make the race car novelty cupcake cake.
You need:
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19 cupcakes baked in Red Cupcake Cases
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1 can of vanilla frosting (e.g. Betty Crocker)
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1 cup of dark chocolate frosting (e.g. Betty Crocker)
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1 cup of dark chocolate candy melts (or chocolate candy mice from pick n mix)
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2 wafer biscuits (e.g. pink wafers)
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2 mini chocolate frosted doughnuts
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2 regular chocolate frosted doughnuts
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Small amount of flesh coloured sugar paste and small amount of yellow sugar paste (or something else to make drivers head and headlights from – the book says t0 use a graham cracker for the driver and yellow candies for headlights.
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Cadbury chocolate fingers (however many you need to munch on and improvise with!)
1. Bake 19 cupcakes in red cases.
3. Reserve one third of the red icing and smooth the other two thirds over 15 cupcakes.
4. Starting with the edge of the cupcake dip it into red sanding sugar and roll until all the edge is covered. Then turn over so the top of the cupcake is in the sugar. Repeat until all 15 cupcakes are covered.
5. For the spoiler and accessories the book says to use melted candy, but I didn’t have any (although I have since bought some) so I tried using chocolate. Big mistake! It works to start with, but then just melts and collapses so I had to improvise using cadbury chocolate fingers and edible glue! But, on the basis you’ll be properly prepared….put one cup of chocolate candy into a ziplock bag (or freezer bag or plastic disposable piping bag) and microwave (without sealing bag) for 10 seconds. Massage bag and repeat until all the candy is melted. Put greaseproof paper or wax paper onto a baking tray and snipping off a small corner of the ziplock / piping bag, pipe the shape of a spoiler (long rectangle with slanted edges) and fill. Repeat making a two digit number, a roll bar (outline of a rectangle without one narrow edge), a steering wheel (half an oval shape) and two smaller rectangles without one narrow edge for the exhaust. Put in the fridge to set.
6. To make the driver I used flesh coloured sugar paste and rolled into a ball. I then melted the one third of red frosting (using canned frosting) on 5 second intervals, stirring in between to get the consistency of whipped cream, and dipped one side and the top of the sugar paste ball in it. Then set aside and dry. If you’re making your own buttercream i’d suggest making the helmet out of sugar paste too. Add facial features, goggles etc either with an edible food pen or piping candy or royal icing.
7. Get two wafer biscuits and cut crosswise to make four equal pieces. Trim one quarter off the length of two wafers and then coat in a thin layer of the frosting and dip in the sanding sugar. Set aside.
8. Using one cup of dark chocolate canned frosting smooth over the four uncovered cupcakes, right to the edges. Then press a chocolate doughnut on to each chocolate covered cake.
9. Arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter or cutting board (ideal if you can have them sitting on black or grey to look like a road). You need one red cupcake in front, a row of two, a row of three made up of the two doughnut cupcakes on their sides and one red cupcake in the centre, a row of three red cupcakes, a row of three cupcakes made up of the other two doughnut cakes and one red cupcake in centre, one cupcake on top of this centre one, a last row of three cupcakes with another row of three on top.
10. Add finishing touches to complete. You could use yellow candy for the headlights and pipe chocolate candy onto it, or, as I did, use yellow sugar paste and apply the criss-cross with edible food pen and attach with frosting or edible glue. Take your candy templates out of the fridge and add to relevant places (or improvise with similar chocolate items), add the drivers head and pipe a dot of vanilla frosting (or white candy) to the middle of each tyre. Add the wafers to the top of each tyre.
11. Use your imagination and creativity and adapt this however you fancy.
For this and other novelty cupcake ideas get the book
