Fire Engine Cake

The long stretch of blog inactivity belied a hurried & intensive search on how-to-make/bake a Fire Engine Cake for my beloved Son2's 3rd birthday. Can't believe it took me so long to gather enough courage to try this. No choice. Literally, 'me and my big mouth'. I promised him, and I MUST, I HAVE TO, deliver.

Man kindly suggested for me to "just order one lah". Tempting. But No, I reminded myself. I baked a Strawberry Cheesecake for Son1. And Son2 had since requested for a Fire Engine Cake.

Gosh!... am I thankful that Son3 hasn't spoken his first word yet.

Images conjured in my little head... Frosting colours will be simply Red, White and Brown... or Black... or maybe a little Blue... Oreo cookies for wheels,.. oh and sirens...

I thought with some remaining batter, I can try to add in a Police Car. Afterall, police work with firemen all the time right? ... Or perhaps, a simple all-white ambulance will be just fine too.

That's when it gets really complicated. Decided to just keep it simple. Fire Engine will be it! No more, no less.

Turned out a rather pinkish Fire Engine. Really, at the sight of it, no one quite care.

Not too bad huh!? I'm proud of myself. As I hope they will too. It really took a novice baker like me a lot of time to research, study, plan and try. *a little pat of my shoulder*

This is what you'd need:

Cake (one loaf tin)
85gm Self-Raising Flour
70gm Plain Flour
150gm Sugar
115gm Butter (softened)
2 eggs
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

Frosting
250gm Cream Cheese (I used Philadelphia)
60gm Butter (softened)
120gm Icing Sugar

Red Colour: Strawberry Emulco and Red food colouring
Brown Colour: Chocolate Paste
White Colour: Original, ie no colouring

This is what I did:

Cake
1. Sift the two flours together and set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter. Add in sugar gradually, continue to beat till light and fluffy. Add in egg one at a time, and beat till well incorporated.

3. Add in the Flour in 3 additions. Alternating with the Milk & Vanilla Essence mixture. Continue to beat till well blended.

4. Pour in a well-greased (or lined) loaf tin. Bake at 170degC for 45min to an hour. You may need to tent the cake towards the end of the baking time to prevent burning the cake top.

5. Check doneness with a skewer. Remove slightly cooled cake from the loaf tin and let it cool completely before chilling in the fridge for at least 3 hrs. (I left it overnight. I find cake that's chilled easier to slice and to work with.)

Frosting
1. Cream the Cream cheese with butter.

2. Add in icing sugar and continue to beat till light and fluffy.

3. Portion out accordingly -- in 3 portions, and add in the colouring as required.

On how to assemble and frost. Look no further. This was my tutorial. Naturally, I tweaked it a little. Have Fun!