I’ve decided to be the kind of mom who makes whatever my kids want when it comes to their birthday cakes, no matter how silly or random. So when my son Theo asked for a car wash cake for his birthday, I had to find a way to make it happen. He has been obsessed with the car wash for probably half of his life, so I knew this wasn’t just a flippant request. Here’s how I pulled it off in case you ever get a car wash cake request.
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For the ribbon scrubber: I built a simple frame using wooden skewers and a popsicle stick that I glued together with a hot glue gun. Then, I used a pasta cutter to cut the ribbons out of gum paste. I chose gum paste because it dries much more firmly than fondant* and I wanted the best stability (we had to drive the cake somewhere). I draped the ribbons over the wooden frame and let the whole thing dry for a few days before using it as a cake topper.
*Fondant would work as well, just note that it takes longer to dry and might be softer/more breakable.
For the spinner scrubbers: I stuck a piece of Australian licorice onto a wooden skewer, then used Wilton Tip 233 to pipe shag buttercream onto it, starting at the bottom of the licorice and working my way to the top.
For the car: I bought a Hot Wheels car from Target.
For the soap suds: I used Wilton Tip 5 and Tip 2 to pipe different sized bubbles all over the cake.
Additional decorations: I accented the car wash design with SprinklePop Rainbow Road sprinkles, which are so pretty and celebratory! And then I added these candles by Meri Meri to make it a party cake.
You can watch a video of me making this cake on Instagram to see how it all came together. I absolutely love how it turned out and can’t wait to see what next year’s birthday cake request will be!
Thank you for sharing this – I used it as inspiration to make a car wash cake for my son with special needs who loves going to the car wash!
That’s awesome, Amy! I hope he loves his cake!!