Lucas's 8th Birthday Party

Today was the big party for sweet Lucas boy's 8th birthday.  It was a Firetruck themed party.  I'm starting with the construction of the cake, last night because I want to remember how I did it and put notes here if anyone else wants to make one...He loved it and that is really all that matters.

The Firetruck cake under construction...

Per Lucas's request a white cake recipe.  

One 11X15 sheet cake. 

Frozen for a few hours. 

(finally learned that trick)

 Cut it into thirds.

One end cut off one of the pieces and set on top of first piece.

The third piece cut in 1/2 and set upright for cab.

assembled.

 Put a crumb coating in dark pink the night before and put it back in the freezer till morning.

This is when I was so frustrated with the "pink" frosting I was getting.  I made it the night before hoping it would be darker by morning, but no luck.  Then I added more coloring in the morning it still looked pink.

 I added so much Wilton red gel food coloring, I felt like something was wrong.  I finally looked online and I learned that you should really use white Crisco not the butter colored one.  And if you use all shortening instead of butter/shortening it may hold up better. 

But, alas, I had to move forward with what I had (butter used and butter flavored crisco) 

so it started out dark "pink".  argh~

The picture doesn't quite show the "pinkness". But, it was frustrating.
Used metal spatula and warm water to smooth surface.

 Piped on the details and smoothed with spatula.

 Lucas woke up at this point, so he got to see it before it was finished.  He was shocked that his cake looked like a firetruck.  He LOVED it!  That's all I cared about!

 As the day wore on, the coloring got darker....I was very happy.  Lucas added the Dots gum drops for lights and sirens and a pile of them right in the middle for some reason..=)

Kids arrived for the party and played for a little while, then we went outside for a Bucket Brigade...
filled bucket with water and passed down the line to put out the "fire" in the plastic box at the end of the driveway.
Then last person took bucket to beginning of line and got to fill with hose. repeat.

 Then came the Firetruck Pinata....

 Lucas was excited to open gifts next so he did.

We ate hot dogs and then came the cake.  By now it was definitely RED!  yeah!   When we sang to him he sang along...=)  it was really sweet!  He wore his "emergency" vest that he had just gotten...

That's one big piece of cake for an 8 year old...he didn't eat it all, but it was fun to call it his own...

I think it was a good birthday for the boy.  He is now in the bathtub surrounded by Mr. Bubble bubbles he got and painting a firetruck on the wall with bathtub markers he also got today.  We will end the day with a little shrimp feast and head to bed.

We love you Lucas!

 Happy Birthday!