By The Stephanie Yates first-birthday-cake catering job. The job had been on the calendar since the baby shower in March. Stephanie’s son Theo was born April 22. The first birthday is celebrated this Saturday at a small backyard gathering. Stephanie had asked for a dump-truck-shaped cake (Theo’s favorite toy is a small wooden dump truck Aunt Linda had given him at the baby shower). The cake is a single specialty cake for a single party. The invoice is $145.
The dump-truck cake is a sheet cake carved into the truck shape — the front cab carved from one half of the sheet, the dump bed carved from the other half, the wheels assembled from chocolate-cookie rounds. The frosting is dyed yellow (cab) and a darker yellow-orange (bed). The headlights are M&M halves. The grille is piped with brown buttercream. The dump load (in the bed) is crushed chocolate cookie crumbs to look like dirt.
I made the cake at Mama’s cafe kitchen Friday afternoon while Carol Bryant held Brayden at the Hampton Inn and Dustin was at the shop. Mama supervised from the dining room while doing the cafe’s closeout. The cake came together in four hours. The carving was the rate-limiting step — cutting cake into a truck-silhouette requires a paper-template laid on top of the sheet for the first cuts, then small refinement-cuts with a serrated knife, then a stable flat surface for the assembled truck to sit on.
Saturday morning I delivered the cake to the Yates house in Sapulpa. Stephanie was at the door with Theo on her hip. Theo pointed at the cake and said “truck.” The cake survived the trip. The party photos came through Saturday evening on the family text-chain.
Dump Truck Cake
Prep Time: 40 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 16
Ingredients
- 1 box (15.25 oz) chocolate cake mix
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3–4 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs (about 10 cookies, for “dirt”)
- 1 small plastic or toy dump truck, cleaned
- Gummy worms or rock candy, for decoration (optional)
Instructions
- Bake the cake. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch baking pan. Prepare the chocolate cake mix according to package directions using the eggs, water, and oil. Pour into the prepared pan and bake 30–35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, at least 1 hour.
- Make the chocolate buttercream. Beat softened butter on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add cocoa powder and salt, mixing until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, alternating with splashes of heavy cream. Add vanilla and beat on high for 2 minutes until smooth and spreadable. Add more cream a teaspoon at a time if frosting is too thick.
- Frost the cake. Spread an even layer of chocolate buttercream over the top and sides of the cooled cake. Smooth with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Create the “dirt” topping. Sprinkle chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs generously over the top of the frosted cake to resemble a dirt-covered construction site. Concentrate the crumbs toward one end of the cake where the dump truck will be placed.
- Set the dump truck. Press a small, clean toy dump truck into the cookie-crumb “dirt” at one end of the cake, angling its bed so it appears to be dumping its load. Fill the truck’s bed with additional cookie crumbs, gummy worms, or rock candy.
- Decorate and serve. Add candles, additional gummy worms crawling out of the “dirt,” or any other decorations your birthday kid loves. Serve directly from the pan and let the birthday child claim the toy truck as a bonus gift.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 420 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 55g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 310mg