Lightning Mcqueen Tutorial With Ref Pics

Decorating By KrisD13 Updated 30 Sep 2010 , 10:05pm by Martina

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KrisD13 Posted 30 Sep 2008 , 1:39am
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Iâve had a lot of PMâs and questions recently about how I did my Lightning McQueen cake, so I figured I would do a tutorial. Just so you know, I used the CARS official website for all my reference pics. I had these in front of me all the time.

DAY 1

Bake the cake
When I was getting ready to bake in the Wilton 3D Funny car pan, I took a piece of wire, wrapped it around a flower nail, and stretched it across and hooked it over the narrow lips of the pan.

I thought this would be better than placing it in the bottom of the pan. It already gets the heat, but being taller-than-a-normal-round pan, I wanted heat conducted near the top.

It worked perfectly! When it came time to take the cake out of the pan, I just leveled it with a knife, and VOILA! there was my flower nail. It had baked into the middle of the risen cake. And because of it being right in the middle, and cake had baked OVER it, it provided heat right in the centre top of pan (bottom of cake when flipped right side over).

And ...there was no hole to worry about in the top of the roof.

MMF If you are going to be coloring the fondant, not airbrushing it, you should do it now. It will take a lot of color to get the correct red and a deep black, but this way it has a chance to deepen in intensity overnight. I started with pink (adding red) for the red, and brown (adding black) for the black. Just make sure to wrap it tightly to store it.

Tires
For the tires, the fastest drying way would be the 50/50 fondant/gumpaste mix. I figured about 2 - 2 1/2 inches across for that size pan. Made them round and flattened, then really flattened the inside area while laying on the table.

I flipped them over and pushed that inside area down again. That way, it was a little more flat across the entire tire and the edges were "sharp".

I used a tip 1 to pipe the âLightyearâ onto the tires.

DAY 2

Carving the back window slope and back wing. I didnât need to take much off for the window. I just eyeballed a straight line down at an angle from the centre of the roof to the end of the trunk. I then took a corner of what I just carved, put a line of icing along the back of the trunk area and added this as the wing. (Triangle shape the width of the car)

Structure to lift it off of cake board. I had some foamcore board. I hot glued some pieces (about 3 inches by 7 inches, by about 3/4"high or so) together, and onto my main cake board. Use the size you feel comfortable with. Covered in foil, and knowing it would be dark under there, I didnât think it would matter what color of covering I used, anyways.

I flipped the cake over onto itâs board. Traced around, lifted cake off, and cut to shape. At this point, I should have carved a bit out for the tires, but I didnât. I then glued this board to the others, and placed the cake back on using a smear of icing to position and hold the cake in place.

Icing and covering in fondant was easier than I thought it was going to be. The usual thin crumb coat went on. I found it was so much easier to cover this cake because of the sloping shape, rather than the straight sides of a round or square cake. I left about 1/2 inch extra fondant at the bottom and tucked it under the board.

At this point, I shaped the smile into the front of the car, as much as I could.

The front window - I cut out the shape I thought for his eyes. Replaced it with white fondant. Pulled two blue pieces and two tiny black pieces, rolled into balls, flattened, and glued together for his eyes. Placed these on in the most mischievous way I could think of, and used white icing to add the glint. icon_razz.gif

Piping Details Back and side windows, side lightning flashes, headlights and sticker details were all done at this point, using a toothpick to pick out the shape. I broke it down by doing all one color, then switching to the next color, and so on until I was done. Piping the logo came next. Wow, was my hand sore after all this!

I finished off by adding his flashingly, dashingly âKa-Chow!â white teeth!

I left the tires off until just before bringing the cake out to the table. I attached them by piping some icing on the back of the tire and standing up against the side of cake. Then, for each tire, I flattened a piece of red, piped a dot of icing inside the indent of the tire and placed the red hubcap in there.
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14 replies
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Shamitha Posted 30 Sep 2008 , 9:23am
post #2 of 15

That's fantastic. Thank you for sharing icon_smile.gif

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anitadoskas Posted 30 Sep 2008 , 9:56am
post #3 of 15

Thank you so much.... I feel like I now have an idea as to where to begin.


Thanks

anita

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vonnie99 Posted 30 Sep 2008 , 11:04am
post #4 of 15

Thank you!!! I bought my pan and I'm ready to roll! I can't wait to try to make this cake!

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solascakes Posted 6 Apr 2009 , 9:30am
post #5 of 15

i hope i can attempt this

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BakingJeannie Posted 8 Apr 2009 , 3:52pm
post #6 of 15

Thanks for the post. I did not know that was the name of the car. I just posted (look in my pictures) one I made over the weekend for a neighbour (my first car) and I copied the design from the cake picture she gave me. I used a Wilton car mold to bake cake and carved it for some of the details on car.

I would love to use your tutorial to do it again.

Cheers!

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nicolesprinkle Posted 14 Jul 2009 , 11:05pm
post #7 of 15

Wow! Thanks for the tutorial! Can I use wilton Color Mist spray to get the red for the car? I don't have an airbrush and I hate dying fondant red. I also don't want to buy red. Thanks!

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rosiecast Posted 26 Jan 2010 , 9:03pm
post #8 of 15

That's soo cool. Thanks for the tutorial. Very helpful.

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The_Lil_Cakehouse Posted 26 Jan 2010 , 9:17pm
post #9 of 15

Thanks!

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GL79 Posted 26 Jan 2010 , 9:22pm
post #10 of 15

Thanks for the tutorial

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Cristi-Tutty Posted 26 Jan 2010 , 9:34pm
post #11 of 15

wow thank you so much!!! great tutorial... icon_smile.gif

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ZoesMum Posted 27 Jan 2010 , 12:54am
post #12 of 15

Ooooh...I know a certain little boy who would love a cake like this for his birthday...thanks for the information!!

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dcabrera Posted 27 Sep 2010 , 6:09pm
post #13 of 15

You just saved ME!

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almageane Posted 27 Sep 2010 , 6:28pm
post #14 of 15

Thanks so much!

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Martina Posted 30 Sep 2010 , 10:05pm
post #15 of 15

Thank you so much!

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