The Mystery Machine Cake

Every year (or almost every year) I bake an anniversary cake for Cobblestone Tours (a friend’s business) and this year the cake was the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. The back story on this cake: 8 years ago Jamie ordered a cake from a local bakery it was suppose to say: SAVANNAH HAUNTED HISTORY TOUR instead it said SAVANNAH HAUNTED MYSTERY TOUR, he went ballistic on the poor cashier and they fixed it so it said SAVANNAH HAUNTED HISTORY TOUR. I have never forgotten this story and have been thinking about this cake for years. I finally figured out how to make the cake. A couple months ago my mom sent me two identical bread pans, it didn’t dawn on me until the pans almost hit me in the head while I was putting something away a couple weeks ago. I pulled them out and placed them on top of each other and was like I know what I am making for the party.

Saturday was the prep day – I will say I did cheat with the cake I used 2 Duncan Hines Yellow Box Cakes because when you have a 10 month old he only lets you do so much. I made the marshmallow fondant the day before so it could set (even made a double batch, so I wouldn’t have to make it for Vincent’s party.) I also mapped out my game plan – I made all the templates.

My daughter loves when I bake cakes – Official Batter Tester

Sunday morning I woke up and started dying the fondant – I started with the orange, then the green, blue, gray, and black. This process took close to an hour to get the universal color throughout the fondant. I figured this would be so much easier and look so much better then painting everything (I was right on both). After I made each color I wrapped it back up in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge (it was 115 yesterday making the fondant very sticky!) I sprinkled corn starch on waxed paper that I put over my fondant mat and started rolling out the colored fondant. I cut out each individual piece of the van and put them in the fridge until it was time to put them on the van. The Savannah Haunted Mystery Tour was rolled out of orange fondant and then constructed on the green (each side too about 40 minutes to make.)

I then had to make the frosting which involved a huge mess because I put the sugar in before creaming the butter and vanilla together (I thought I was turning my mixer off and I turned it on full blast.) After that little mishap I frosted the cake and finally remembered to take a picture.

Cake half frosted

The next challenge was to roll the blue fondant out and cover the cake. This process is tricky on a good day but factor in the extreme heat and humidity I was expecting a disaster. I covered the fondant mat with corn starch and then rolled everything out to about a 1/4″ thick (just in case it started melting I would have it a little thicker, so it wouldn’t tear.)

Completely covered with the blue fondant – I was ecstatic!

I applied all of the decorated pieces with water and a paint brush. I also painted the windows, the bottom 1/2″of the cake, and the wheel wells with black icing gel. Then I put it in the fridge and realized I forgot the orange flowers on the side and made them while the cake was in the fridge (Jeff laughed at me – I guess it would be pretty funny to walk into the kitchen and see your wife’s backside sticking out of the fridge.) He also said no one would know I forgot the orange flowers, he is probably right but I would have known.