Last week Arthur turned 3. He had requested a 'blue bin lorry cake' for his party, and so armed with his toy bin lorry for inspiration and a guide, I set to work...

how to make a blue bin lorry recycling garbage truck birthday cake

I hadn't actually planned to write a post about this...mainly because I had no idea how this would turn out, and I'm definitely not about to win any cake making awards...but a lady who follows me on Instagram has also had a toddler request for a bin lorry cake and so I agreed to share my methods!

I challenge you to try this for yourself and (most probably) o a better job - make sure you tag me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook if you do!

How to make a bin lorry birthday cake

You will need:

(Click on the images below for product info, pricing and to purchase from Amazon (affiliate) )

Cake mix, or ingredients to make your chosen sponge flavour
Fondant icing - I bought blue, black and white. I mixed black and white to make the grey and I used food colouring to make the yellow and green.
Red food colouring
Butter cream
Strawberry jam
Plus the following extras....

two loaf tins to make blue bin lorry recycling garbage truck birthday cake

you will need chocolate sprinkles and silver crisp pearls to make the rubbish and lights on the blue bin lorry recycling garbage truck birthday cake

you will need mikado sticks or cake dowels to make the blue bin lorry recycling garbage truck birthday cake

you will need chocolate icing writing and silver spray to make the blue bin lorry recycling garbage truck birthday cake

How to make the bin lorry birthday cake:

As I wasn't planning on writing this post, my photos are a little limited, but hopefully these annotated step by step photos will provide a good guide for you to copy from.

There are a few steps prior to this first picture which are as follows:

Bake the 2 cake loaves and section them as per the photo below
Roll the icing on top of baking paper, using icing sugar to stop it sticking.
To cover the cake in the fondant icing, apply a thin layer of strawberry jam which will act as the 'glue'. Carefully apply the icing a side at a time, using the baking paper to help you smooth it down. Seal any edges with water and a soft paintbrush.
Different parts of the loaves are stuck together using jam and buttercream and the MIKADO dowel rods as follows...