dump truck cake

what has four wheels and flies?

a dump truck! get it? sorry. it took me a while to understand.

i made this for a three-year-old’s birthday party. last year i made him a cake that looked like an alpaca. those are two pretty cool interests to have as a toddler, alpacas and dump trucks. next year i’m hoping for something space-themed. i’ve been wanting an excuse to make some sort of galaxy cake.

this cake was directly inspired by alana kysar of fix feast flair! she’s amazing. the cake is chocolate, filled with crushed-oreo-cookie-frosting and iced with birthday-cake-oreo-creme-frosting. the trucks are marzipan, punched out with some fondant pressers from cake boss decorating. the one on top is just a mini plastic CAT model.

this is so perfect for a little boy’s birthday!! or just for yourself! make it!

cake

• 3 oz semisweet chocolate
• 1 1/2 cup hot coffee
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

frostings

• 5 sticks butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 9 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp heavy cream
• 20 birthday cake oreos

decoration (optional)

• marzipan
• gel food coloring
• truck-shaped fondant press
• mini plastic dump truck
• cone shaped candles

for the cake, preheat the oven to 300º. grease four 9-inch round cake pans and line with parchment paper. mix the chocolate with the hot coffee and set aside (don’t stir). whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and powder, and salt. in a stand mixer, beat eggs until thick and lemon colored. add the oils, buttermilk, and vanilla. stir the chocolate-coffee mixture and add it to the wet ingredients. add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat for twenty seconds. divide the batter evenly between the pans and bake each for 30 minutes. let cool for five minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a rack and let cool for at least an hour.

for the frostings, beat together the butter and salt in a stand mixer for 5 minutes. gradually beat in the powdered sugar. add the vanilla and heavy cream. remove 2/3 of the frosting to a separate bowl. scrape the creme filling out of each of the oreos and put it into the separate bowl with the buttercream. stir well until combined. crush the filling-less cookies and add to the buttercream still in the mixer bowl. beat to combine.

to assemble, place one (leveled) cake round onto a 9-inch cardboard cake board. spread with some of the cookie-crumb filling. repeat until you’ve reached the top layer. use the cookie-creme frosting to crumb coat the cake, then chill for at least 30 minutes. frost again with the remaining frosting. chill while you’re cutting out the marzipan trucks (see above; marzipan can be dyed the color of your choice). arrange them on the cake as desired. top with the plastic truck and some additional oreo crumbs to look like dirt. i also filled the dump truck with mini m&ms!