Dump Truck Cake
Gearing up to host a construction-themed birthday? This hauler will get your party on a roll! Using packaged cake mix, easy-to-mix frosting and basic loaf pans instead of a special mold to form the truck's shape, we made this cake speedy. You can pave the way for your own big rig, too, by following these simple instructions. —Taste of Home Test Kitchen
Reviews
I found this recipe to be absolutely clear. I didn't have a crumb/icing issue on the cut pieces. That may be due to the cake box I used (Betty Crocker devil foods cake), or because I softened the icing a bit more with more milk. My son absolutely loved the result. Great cake!
Although I did not make this cake, I'm on the fence about it, I do recall when having to frost a cut piece of cake it needs to be spread with some Jam or jelly first,( not sure which) to contain the crumbs.
One of those recipes that is tiresome in practice. Makes you wonder whether the person who wrote it up really made the cake per instructions. We ended up with something that looked much more rough-and-ready, though still charming. Quite charming. Don't regret making it, but be warned.Among the problems. (1) Once you cut pieces off the cake to shape it, icing neatly becomes impossible, because spreading icing along cut surfaces is very difficult. Don't know the fix to this, but be aware this will be a problem. (2) One of the unmentioned construction challenges is that loaf pans have tilted sides, so when you put one cake so cooked on another one, you don't have neat vertical sides. Either you do a lot more trimming or you get a different result. (3) The construction instructions, starting with the bullet on "For truck cab," are actually incomprehensible. They just make no sense. So you have you use your own instincts. Good luck. This cake can be to make, but be aware that the directions aren't going to help you much once you have put the two pieces on each other. :-)
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Nice only 1 gum drop needed since cut in half. No picture of back of truck & found the directions all over the place not in order needed to do the work.
I just made this cake for my son's 2nd birthday. He LOVED it! I thought some of the instructions were hard to follow but was able to just go by the picture for most of it. A few things I did different: I used my own chocolate cake recipe rather than a mix. I froze the cakes overnight before finishing the next day; MUCH easier to cut and frost that way. I also used black frosting and piped all the black parts on because I could not find black string licorice. Mine turned out almost exactly like the picture and overall it was a great success!
Has anyone made this cake? Any suggestions?