Instructions For Semi Truck Cake.

Decorating By cohenandlillysmom

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cohenandlillysmom Posted 21 Jul 2008 , 1:42pm
post #1 of 1

This post must have got lost in the crash and I have had a lot of you ask for it. I am so sorry for taking so long in responding. icon_redface.gif

Any other questions please feel free to pm me.

I was a little overwhelmed when asked for directions on how to construct the semi cake I did last weekend. I was somewhat of a traumatic experience and relieving the 42 pain staking hours was a bit scary. Everything went ok but it was 2 people non-stop working. Now that we know how to do it hopefully the next one will be faster. icon_confused.gif

I can't give you every detail and measurement only because I dont have that much time at the moment, but I will do my best. If you have a particular question PM me and i can answer and explain more that way.

One more thing before I dive in.... My husband is an excellent auto-body repair man, so his knowledge of how things look and are shaped is extensive (sometimes annoying). So just keep trying and start small.


The first thing we did was get a model of what we wanted to make. The company we made this one for gave us a toy that they sell in their store. We just replicated the toy. We measured the trailer LxWxH. Then we measured the cab LxWxH (we used the same width as the trailer, also our cab had a wind visor we did NOT include this in our measurement because we planned on making it separately with rice krispie.) When you measure the cab be sure to note the measurement of the 5th wheel hitch separately, as you will create this as a separate piece (it needs to be from the front of the cab Be sure to clearly record and label EVERY measurement, donât let DH be responsible for writing it down, (this piece of advice would have saved 4 hours of my time!). We then multiplied each measurement by 4. You can determine your multiple by how big you want your cake or how many you need to feed. Our trailer was 23â long and would have fed 75 or so (they didnât eat it).

Next you will need to measure every aspect you wish to recreate. We measured EVERYTHING. And then multiply it by the same multiple you used earlier. You may need to each measurement slightly but you will get a good idea of what size you need.

Now its time to cut. We used masonite board. We cut the first one to fit the cab (be sure to note if your cab angles in towards the front, you will want to cut these angles into the board).
The second one needs to be the length and width of the fifth wheel hitch, remember the measurement should be from the front of the cab to the end of the hitch.
The third should be the length and width of the trailer.
Now to cut the bases. The first one should be the length of the cab and add the fifth wheel hitch plus and inch or so on each end, (remember to only add the measurement of the length that the hitch sticks out of the cab, I hope that makes sense).
The last board should be cut to a little over ¼ of the trailer.
Now you will need dowels, we used 1â. These need to be tall enough to achieve the height that you desire. Ours were a little over 6â which was the height of our wheels. We used 2 for the front of the cab, 2 for the back of the fifth wheel, and 4 for the back of the trailer.
You will need one more dowel for the front of the trailer that will slide into the fifth wheel hitch, but you will need to wait for the measurement. ( you will see why in a minute.)
You will need to drill a hole the width of this dowel into the fifth wheel hitch board (this will be your fifth wheel.) be sure to leave enough room, your dowel will not go at the very front of your trailer, we put ours about 1 in from the front, so you will need to accommodate for this. (DH is very good for trying to figure this stuff out.)
Now you need to screw the dowels into the base boards. You will need to determine where they need to go. We hid them behind the wheels.

DONâT SCREW THE DOWELS TO THE BOARDS THAT MATCH THE CAKE YET! You need to screw the fifth wheel hitch board to the cab board.
You will now need some rice krispies, and RI.
On the bottom of the fifth wheel hitch (just the part of the board that sticks out behind the cab) attach rice krispie with RI. It should be as wide as the board and be about ½ high. (This just makes the fifth wheel hitch look more realistic.) Be sure to make a hole where you drilled one out in the board.
Now make a round circle out of the rice krispie about ½ in high (these are the measurements I used, so scale them to your model.) This need to be attach with RI over the hole that you drilled, be sure to also cut a hole in the krispie.
Now you can measure for your fifth wheel dowel. Measure from the base board to the top of the round rice krispie, I would add about 1/8 in to ¼ in to leave room for fondant.
You can now cover with black fondant.

Now for your cake. I cant tell you how many cakes you will need because I donât know what size you are making it. But for mine I used 1 9x13 for the cab, cut them width wise not length wise. And 3 11x15 for the trailer, I did not have a pan the right length for the trailer so I pieced it by the halves, also cutting width wise not length wise. Also I filled mine like I would a wedding cake and I really shouldnât have. The less frosting you have between the layers the more stable it will be.

I then cut cardboard (and lined it with wax paper) to the shape that I needed for the cab and trailer. I used these as templates to cut the cake. I then let them rest over night in bun pan bags (per sharon zambitoâs tips).
DH then carved the front of the cab (not a whole lot of detail there, just look at your model.)
Then we began to shape the fenders, bumpers and wind visor out of rice krispie. I cant give you much advice on this part because I let the DH handle the technical stuff. Just try to make it look like your replica. We attached the fenders with lots of RI and toothpicks. We put cans (vegetable cans) under them so that they could rest and dry properly. After they were dry we put more RI on the actual fender to make it super hard. One of the fenders was a little weak and started to crack and this really seemed to fix that. The bumper was then hot glued to the front edge and just underneath the board for the cab.

We covered the wind visor separately from the cab so that the weight of the fondant wouldnât pull it down.

We then covered the cab with fondant, believe it or not this was only my second time covering with fondant, so I donât really have a lot of tips, just work quickly to get the excess off so that it doesnât put too much weight on your fenders and bumpers. Cut out for the windows and windshield. Then we took a veining tool and indented the details of the truck, like around the doors and made the headlights, around the fenders and bumper to create a kind of seperation.

Now we can start on the trailer. Screw the fifth wheel dowel to the board that the trailer will sit on, remember to leave room but not too much. You might want to do a test run by attaching the trailer to the fifth wheel. Put the cake on the board and then put dowel thru the layers. I used 4 but you should use any system or method you are comfortable with to make your cake stable. Now just cover with fondant.

We made the wheels from rice krispies and used a can ( not a soup can, too small, a can that had vegetables in it.) and then covered them with black fondant and used nu-silver luster dust and Bacardi to paint rims.

Because our trailer was a refrigerator we made a cooling element for the front of the trailer and we also made an exhaust pipe. You should decide, depending on how large or small you make yours, which details to make.

I have tried to go into as much detail as I can, for those who didnât want this much detail Im sorry, I just wanted to give as clear of an explanation as I could.

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