Racing Birthday Party

Sausage Boy just turned four and we celebrated with a Racing Party. He's always moving so it seemed perfectly appropriate...non-stop action for the non-stop little boy!!

We began the morning with an actual race for charity at our church. The Warthog Waddle benefited Wiphan ministries. This was the kids' first time ever running a race and they weren't sure what to expect. You can tell they look a little apprehensive before. Turns out they loved it and all of them completed the 1 mile easily. Now the big kids want to run a 5k with Mommy.

At the finish the kids were so proud and determined. Daddy looked...well crazy. You can hardly see Sausage Boy behind his nutty Daddy. He's such a wonderful man and doesn't mind being completely foolish to get the kids (and me) to laugh.

When the official party started back home, we handed out racecar tattoos for the kids. We also asked the guests to bring their bikes, ride on toys, anything they wanted to race around the yard and culdesac. We held many footraces down the driveway and back, even ending with a crepe paper finish line to break through! All of the kids were awarded medals, which they proudly wore. I picked these up at the Target dollar spot, along with many of the other goody bags treasures. Each bag contained a Matchbox car, more tattoos, race car stickers, a coloring page, and Cars pens and pencils.

The kids all loved riding on a friend's John Deere Gator. Big Sister was proud of her medal.

My cousin Michael gave Sausage Boy this cardboard race car for Christmas. I secreted it away to save for this party. We let the kids race up and down the driveway as the driver.

Proud Racer with his medals from the party and the Warthog Waddle race.

We decorated the house with car stuff my husband pulled from the garage. We put things all over the house, being sure to keep dangerous stuff up high on the mantle. We also got LOTS of race car books from the library, and used our Hot Wheels cars to decorate. The kids were pretty interested in the tools and I wish we had set up an old wheel or tire for them to pretend with.

This cake was one I've made before. You can tell when you look at the old photo I've gotten better at cake decorating over the years. While I'm still no artist, I have learned I can create something that looks more like the picture in my head. Through trial and error I've learned some tips to make cakes look more like what you see in magazines and bakeries. One of the first things I had to learn was leveling the cakes after they are cooled. I do use these fabric strips around the cake pans because it pains me to cut off and throw away cake and I have been known to be a Nice Mommy and share the scraps with the kids on occasion.

For the race car cake you need two 9" round cakes. I made a red velvet cake because my son insisted the cake be RED...his favorite color. Cool on wire racks and then level with a knife or this handy dandy gadget called a cake leveler so you have a flat surface.

After you level cut away a small arc off one of the rounds.

This enables the two cakes to nestle together and make your figure eight race track. {Notice I flipped the cakes upside down. That way I have a less crumbs when I ice it.}

Glop a ton of icing on the top of the cakes and spread around. When I first started I used a rubber spatula, but now I have an offset metal spatula that makes this process much easier. You also want to remember, do not pick up the spatula while you are spreading, that's what picks up the crumbs. instead keep moving forward, spreading the icing. This takes practice, but when you get it, you don't have to do the time consuming crumb coat (ie. two coats of icing). Ice the top and then the sides. This cake can look messy because you are going to cover it.

I used a round small plastic container to mark my inside track.

These lines are your guide for icing the track and infield. You can also cover the track with chocolate cookie crumbs (or black sugar like I did before) and the inside track with green sprinkles instead of icing if you like.

If you want to create grass, you need piping tip # 233 or #234. This tip makes it easy to pipe grass on the top and sides of the cake and it doesn't matter how messy you are, it always looks good.

White icing around the track and Good and Plenty white candies (or more icing) create the dashed lines for the road.

I stuck a few race cars on the track and some candles and we were off. Of course the birthday boy wanted to know if he could race the cars on the track!