Maxi’s Diesel 10 Birthday Cake
Last night I finished two cakes, Maxi’s birthday cake and his party cake, I do so love it that he thinks that birthday’s are all about the cake, mainly as I totally agree!
He hasn’t seen his Diesel 10 cake yet, I wanted it to be a surprise. I think I’d give it about 5.5/10. It’s OK, but the colour of his body is slightly wrong, and some of the dimensions are a bit wonky. Well that will teach me to start icing a cake that I have not moulded yet!
I’ve made an enormous amount of sponge cake for the party cake, so decided to make a banana loaf for this one. the only problem is that sometimes the rising and consistency of this cake is not perfect, but it’s very tasty, so is made often.
The recipe is taken from “The Cook’s Companion” by Josceline Dimbleby, published in 1991… I knew I’d had it a few years, I didn’t realise I’d had it for 20! Page 295 is quite sticky, it has had flour spilt on it, and it is obvious that something from this page is baked often.
To make 1 large loaf you need 500g (1lb) ripe bananas, 250g (8oz) self rising flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 125g (4oz) butter or margarine, 125g (4oz) sugar, 2 eggs and 2 tablespoons of honey.
Mash the bananas with a fork; put the flour and salt in a bowl, and rub in the flour so the mixture looks like breadcrumbs; stir in the sugar (please don’t forget this, it doesn’t taste great without it, as I can contest to, as I forgot it once!), eggs, honey and bananas and mix well until it looks like a batter. Yes it looks wet, but bear with it. Bake at 180°C, 350°F for an hour and fifteen minutes; leave for five minutes; turn it out and allow to cool on a wire rack. I always line the bottom of the loaf tin, with grease proof paper, as it allows for the cake to come out of it really easily.
Once baked I shaped the cake and then covered it with a yellowish, green butter icing (approximately 1 part butter to 2 parts icing sugar, with a splash of milk and required colouring)
Then it was just time to put the final touches onto it.
From fondant icing, I made black circles for the wheels; white flashes and grey windows for the sides; grey windows for the front; and of course a face and a claw. It was easy to get the fondant icing to stick to the butter cream icing. This helped as I was icing this at 3am last night, and was a little tired to say the least.
and the final product, a solid 5.5/10. But I know Maxi will be happy, and that is all that matters.
Yah thanks for posting this. I’ve had a request for a Diesel 10 cake for my Mr 4 so this will be a big help to me.
It’s my pleasure. In hind-site I would probably make a sponge cake if your 4yo is not a fan of banana bread. but if you make it in a loaf tin, you can cut it in the same way (even cutting it in half to fill with more butter cream)
I hope it goes well, I love making cakes & my son is obsessed with Diesel 10!
My 3yo is obsessed with Thomas, so I made Thomas for his birthday… I really need to post that story too (though that was hard work!)
ok, looks great. now i just have to figure out a way to do what you did, but for the black diesel rather than diesel 10. do you think i can use the same recipe?
Yes that should work, and you can make a vanilla sponge cake if you’d rather, about 5 eggs would do for a loaf tin, but it takes longer to cook as it’s quite deep, alternatively use a rectangle pan and cut it in half and put jam and buttercream in the middle. I find black fondant a pain to make & usually buy it ready coloured. Good Luck & glad it helps 🙂
Looking around for ideas since my soon to be 4 year old wants Diesel 10. Do you remember how you got that color. Not even sure what colors to mix to get that green one. Thanks.
Oh, and, how did you make the claw?
I think I started with a green, and added yellow and blue to add to the dirty colour, that and a touch of brown. I do hope it works, my 4yo LOVES diesel 10… he is obsessed. If you use fondant to cover the cake it would look more like him, but I was making him another cake for the birthday and we prefer butter icing!
Loving the diesel 10 cake- I helped my wife do one for my sons 3rd birthday- but ended up going a bit OTT!!
check it out on my photostream if you like- http://www.flickr.com/drmaccon
Wow, your cake is awesome. Honestly this cake was knocked up in about half an hour, it was the “family” birthday cake, not the “party” birthday cake. But somehow I kind of like the rough around the edges element to it. Thanks again for sharing your cake, it was truly awesome, hope the birthday boy liked it.
I love this, my son is turning 4 and Desiel 10 is his very fav! Hoping to make something like this for his bday. How did you shape the claw? And where do you find fondant?
I have to be honest I knocked this up fast, so made the shape of the claw closed & just ran a sharp knife round the edge in a zig zag to show the teeth.
I have a wee shop that I get my fondant from (they make their own) but you can make it at home or buy it online or you should be able to find it in supermarkets…
Good luck and do share your results x