Roller Coaster Cakes

Roller Coaster Cake

This was the next birthday cake for my roller coaster obsessed kids. I decided to go big with this one so I made two cakes (just from a box recipe) and put them on different levels.

The cakes were filled with chocolate butter cream which also served as frosting for decorations (the crossbars and roller coaster design that rims the sides of the cakes). The cakes were covered in a simple butter cream.

The 3D elements were created using stiff cardboard, foil and fondant. I had never worked with fondant before and have found it very fun! However, the ramp element on the left gave me problems and we had to resort to power tools the day of the party to get it stable. Yes, man-sized power tools! A saw, drill and dowels!

The crossbars on the 3D elements were made with fondant too as were the coaster cars and kids. I wish this picture showed my favorite part - one of the girls is a redhead with a big yellow polka dotted bow in her flowing red hair - but I tried to make all the kids happy with "flappy" hair. Their arms are toothpicks wrapped in flesh colored fondant. I tinted all the fondant myself and had rainbow colored hands for days. :)

First Roller Coaster Cake

This was my first time making a 3D cake. The cake itself is just a boxed recipe. The frosting is a simple butter cream that we like. The roller coaster bridge was made using stiff cardboard covered with foil then buttercream. By the end of the day the frosting was "melting" off the bridge so I decided that the next time I did this I'd use fondant.

The cars are made using halved milano cookies, frosting and M&Ms.