These three cakes are made to look like the three mobile pre-k buses that serve Burke County, NC. Bust'r is yellow, Betsie is white with black cow spots and Bee-Bee is lavender with a beehive on the side. These cakes were carved from stacked sheet cakes, frosted in buttercream and covered and decorated in marshmallow fondant. Each cake is 8"x4" and 4" tall, and serves 12-16. For directions, click below.
In advance, cut and cover the main cake boards. My boards were simply 19"x13" boards cut exactly in half to 9.5"x13" in size and covered in fanci-foil. For the buses, cut single cake boards to 4"x8" in size, and cut four wheel wells out on each (theses are the areas where the tires will set in on the cake, if wheel wells are not cut out, the tires will rest outside the body of the cake, for details and images of a similar board, see here: How to Make a Car Cake).To make the buses appear to rest on their tires, they must be set on risers exactly 1/2 the height of the tires. My tires are double stuff Oreos covered in fondant.... fairly tall, so my risers are 5 cake boards tall, and are cut exactly to fit between the wheel well cuts on the board the bus sits on. The risers are approximately 1 inch shorter in length than the bus board, so the won't show as much. I covered the risers with a black napkin (so it would look like a shadow under the vehicle), and hot glued them to the centers of the main cake boards.
Also in advance, make the mirrors on wires. I make these in the same way I make stars on wires... by "gluing" two same-size pieces together with a wire between them. For the round mirrors, I make an inverted "V" shaped wire, for the rectangular mirrors, I make a squared off "U" shaped wire. I used black for the back of each mirror, and gray for the mirror side. I painted the mirror side with silver pearl dust to make them shiny and more realistic. I did the same thing to the wheels, so they would appear metallic. Stick the wires into a piece of floral foam so that the mirrors are up in the air to dry overnight.
I baked two 9"x13" sheet cakes. I leveled each cake and sliced off all the edges (since they are slightly beveled and I needed them as straight as possible). I then cut each sheet cake into three even pieces that were 4"x8", for a total of 6 pieces of cake. I stacked them to form three 4" tall cakes. I carved the hood area on each one (that just takes practice and the guts to jump right in and do it.... do a little at a time... you can always carve more off, but you can't put back what is removed). Frost the custom cake boards so the cakes will adhere, then frost the whole cakes and cover in fondant. Put hot glue on top of the risers, all the way around the top, and carefully lift each cake and place centered on the risers. Once the cakes are in place, you can use a round cookie cutter the same size as the tires and gently cut the cake where the tires will go. Remove those small pieces of cake and discard, or feed to your sweets-loving kids who are no doubt hanging around the kitchen waiting for you to feed them scraps.... or does that only happen at my house? Add trim to the bottom edges (I used black fondant on all 3 buses for contrast, but you can use any color you like). The trim hides the rough edges on the bottom of the buses (and any wrinkles that might have formed when covering the cake). The trim around the tires is easy to make by using 2 round cutters, one slightly larger than the other. Cut a semi-circle with the large cutter, and cut the center of it out with the smaller cutter (my smaller cutter is the same one I used to cut the holes for the tires to fit in the cake)... voila... semi-circular trim to fit exactly over the tires. Add 3 windows on one side, and 2 windows and one door on the other side. Add the windshield, grill and headlights on the front and the back window on the back. Add 2 red "lights" to the top and bottom of the front and back of the bus. Add the mirrors, and you're done. :o)
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