Kelli Bakes Cakes: Kinda Like "Tuh-mater"... but without the "tuh" Mater

I've got friends with all sorts of kids. And those kids have birthdays and those birthdays need CAKE! A few of these little guys I've known forever (or at least for them). And I've got to make cakes for all the important milestones.

For instance, there's Camden. I did a baby shower cake, a first birthday cake and now a second birthday cake! [cough..cough...there's a third coming up soon Mom!] I love that I can be a part of the lives of these kiddos in such a special way.

As any kid does, this little guy has all sorts of favorites depending on the week, but this particular week, his favorite was Cars. And I LOVE Cars, especially all those Arizona scenes in the movies. So when Melinda mentioned wanting a Cars theme, I BEGGED (no joke) to do Mater.

"Ain't no need to watch where I'm goin'; just need to know where I've been."

You see, I have this wish list of cakes that I want to do:

sparkly pink princess castle (still haven't talked Melinda into this one!)
dinosaur volcano
~~guitar~~ (DONE!)
Mater

So you see, it HAD to be done! No matter what she was actually wanting. Good thing I'm pretty aggressive in getting my way. And actually, this turned out to be a surprisingly easy cake.

First step: carving the cake!

I printed out a picture of Mater at the size I wanted and just sort of went to town on it.

Step 2: decorate (we'll get to the finished photos here in a bit)

Step 3: transport the cake!

I took this picture from the back seat where I got stuck because the cake was in the front seat where the A/C could hit it. It was August y'all! It's hot here!

And the final product:

I was super happy with how this cake turned out! AND I covered that whole thing with a single sheet of fondant. That's skillz, I tell ya. Then the details were hand-painted on. Including a little personalization for the birthday boy.