Truck Cake for 2nd Birthday - A Decorating Tutorial

I made this truck cake for little Chi Yuan who was turning 2. The theme for his birthday party was transportation hence the mother requested a cake that centered around that theme.

Poster for a 2 tier cake decorated with a truck toppers. The sides of the cake is decorated with 2D designs of various types of trucks

Truck cake for a 2nd year birthday

I made one 3D truck for the cake which I used as the cake topper. The rest were 2D road heavy vehicles on the sides of the cake which I cut out using paper templates. And I also added a 3D red cone and traffic lights on the cake.

This was a fun cake to make and I particularly liked the 2d vehicles I made for the cake sides.

How to Decorate a Truck Cake

Main supplies for cake:

Cake – This was a 2 tier cake, measuring 6 inches and 9 inches in diameter. I used my butter pound cake recipe for the top tier and chocolate cake recipe for the bottom tier.
Buttercream – this was used to fill and crumb coat the cake.
Fondant – I used Satin Ice to cover the entire cake as well as for all the deco on the cake.
Gumpaste - The “HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ wordings and the birthday boy’s name are cut out of gum paste.
Extruder tool – I used this for all extrude thin fondant strips for all the border work on the cake.
Floral wire – I used wire to form the number “2” on the cake.
Lollipop sticks – these were used to hold the wire for the number "2". I also used these sticks for the 3D traffic light pole.
CMC – I added CMC to the fondant I used to make the 3D truck, the red cone, and the traffic lights.
Fine tipped brush (food grade) – this brush was to create the tiny white polka dots on the 2d vehicles on the sides of the cake.
Americolor white food coloring - I used this for the tiny polka dots on the vehicles.
Round cutters – I used these mostly for the wheels on the vehicles. I used two types of cutters, one which is from my set of large circle cutters , and the others from my round plunger cutters .
Templates for 2D vehicles – I got the templates from the internet. I then modified them to suit my cake.
Sugarcraft knife – I used this knife quite a lot in this project, particularly when cutting out the 2d vehicles.
FMM alphabet cutters- These were for the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" message and the birthday boy's name.
Fondant glue and shortening

Assembling the truck cake:

The truck topper

I started with the 3D toppers a few days in advance. To make the truck, I started with a thick rectangle base on which I added the front part of the lorry. I then formed the wheels separately and let them rest overnight so that they harden. The blacktop portion of the lorry was also separately made in black and left to dry and harden. And I only assembled the lorry when all the components were dry and hard. That way, the lorry could hold shape once it's fully assembled. I used fondant glue to attach all the parts together.

A yellow and black truck topper made of fondant

The number topper

I also made this topper in advance. For this, I drew a ‘2’ template on a paper and shaped my floral wire to follow the template. And then I rolled light blue fondant and cut out 2 pieces of number two with the guide of my paper template.
Once done, I glued both the cutouts with the shaped wire in between them. And in shaping the floral wire, I made sure the wire ended at the base on the number 2 so that I could use it to poke the topper into the cake.
Once the fondant has set, I piped out a thin roll of white strip with my extruder tool and attached it all around the sides of the number two with glue. And then I left it aside to set completely.

Top view of a 2 tier cake decorated with a yellow and black fondant truck topper

The red cone topper and the traffic lights

The other 3D deco on the cake were the red cone and the traffic lights, and these, I shaped and cut by hand without any templates. The 3 colors of the traffic lights were cut using my round plunger cutter.

A traffic light made of fondant on the side of a 2 tier cake

Assembling the truck cake

As for the cake, once baked and cooled, I leveled, filled and crumb coated it with buttercream. And then I covered both tiers with fondant.
For the side cake déco of the truck cake, I used my sugar craft knife to cut out the parts of the vehicles separately and then attached them to the cake with shortening. For the white polka dots, I used my fine-tipped brush, dipped it into my white food coloring (I used Americolor White), and mark the tiny white dots on the vehicles.

A 2D orange truck on the sides of a cake

A green and red mixer truck cut out of fondant, on the sides of a cake

A blue 2D fondant truck on the sides of a cake

An orange truck in fondant on the side of a cake

The wordings on the cake were cut using FMM alphabet cutters. These were also attached to the cake with shortening.

The cake board

Once the sides were all done, I did the cake board up. I used black and placed long white strips in equal intervals like a road. And then I attached the cake borders.
The final step was to attach the truck (I used glue to hold it in place), the red cone, the traffic light, and the ‘2’. In inserting the number topper, I first inserted the wire into a lollipop stick and then poked it into the truck cake. That way, I can avoid direct contact of the wire to cake.