C is for Chocolate Car Cake

Little Jaecy (whose middle name is Svetlana) (and whom I have never actually met) will be turning one year old this week, and her mom asked if I would make a Wiggles Big Red Car cake for her birthday party.  My knowledge of The Wiggles was limited to their sometime appearance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and I think I probably hit the mute button when they rounded the corner.  That had to change with this cake request. 

I had to immerse myself in Wiggles, extracting just enough iconic and style information from their website and television show to design a credible cake, while ramping up the power of my blood-brain barrier to prevent catchy-kid-song-contagions from inhabiting my head and playing in a nonstop loop for the next 12-18 years.  When talking to Jaecy's mom about the cake, she did sing for me the phrase "toot toot chugga chugga big red car"... a phrase I was destined to repeat repeatedly, aloud and otherwise, for the duration of this particular cake project.  (and yes...it's playing in my head right now, as I type this sentence) 

It turned out okay...but I am not a Master of Fondant, as evidenced by the cracks and ripples in the surface and edges of the cake and car.  I recall Nik saying, mid-crisis, that I just need to practice more (true)..."Make one cake a week"...(maybe).  When done well, fondant looks spectacular; when done not-so-well, imperfections are glaring and nearly impossible to repair.  Gum Paste flowers are useful for hiding large cracks and holes in the fondant, as well as making a car-based cake look a little more girly.  My limited knowledge of The Wiggles leads me to belive that Greg, Murray, Jeff, and Anthony would just keep smiling...no matter what the cake looked like.  Works for me. 

The details:
Base Cakes:  Chocolate cake with a dark chocolate whipped ganache and a milk chocolate whipped ganache filling.
Car Cake:  Red Velvet cake with a milk chocolate whipped ganache filling. 
Coverings, Tires, Dorothy, small lettering:  rolled fondant.
Small flowers, hub caps, headlights, tail lights:  Gum Paste
JAECY flowers:  Inedible sticky-backed foam from the craft store.