Life is a Highway - Car Cake

When I asked my soon-to-be-three-year-old what kind of cake he wanted he said "a car cake". My mind raced (no pun intended) and at first I was thinking of maybe just drawing a car on the cake or something. Then I looked up 'car cake' online and holy cow. So many great ideas! I saw a bunch of great stuff but ended up doing something a little different and combining some ideas.

My main goal was to make it fun, with stuff I had on hand, and not to stress about it.

****DISCLAIMER. Everything I learned about making cakes has been either from the back of a cake box or watching WAY too much of Duff from Ace of Cakes.
I started with two 9x13 sheets and 2 9"rounds and used my awesome cake batter recipe (I actually made brownies for one of the 9x13 sheets because that's what I had. Yeah for more chocolaty goodness!)

I made a foil covered cardboard rectangle to put the cake on. Then I cut the 9x13 cake and half and put half down, then all the brownie sheet and then the rest of the cake 9x13 with frosting in between. I probably would have just put the 2 sheets by themselves but I was 'making it work' as Tim Gunn would say.

Then I shaved the dome off the top of the rounds (to make it all even) and cut them down the center. I iced and stacked the four half rounds and placed it on top of the 9x13s
After stacking everything I cut some curves in the sides and back to make it a little more realistic. My husband gave me a lot of pointers as he watched me make a mess of my kitchen.
I 'dirty iced it' and put on a thin layer of frosting to trap all those crumbs. After the first icing, I put it in the freezer overnight (you can do it for just a couple hours if needed)And at my son's request I frosted it his favorite color, green. It took a little bit of time to get the right shade but turned out well. FYI for all the colors I used Wilton's Food Coloring.
Then just add some windows, piped on some headlights, oreos for the wheels, a frosting covered skewer for the antenna,and a little personalized license plate.
Just perfect! This cake is delicious and though it's huge and weighs a ton, it won't last long, at least not in my house!****Funny side story. Upon coming back from errands I found my soon to be three year old had taken his candle and stabbed the top of cake repeatedly. Luckily I took pictures before. I had a feeling something like that might happen. Oh, the joys of toddlers!