McQueen Birthday Cake

This easy-to-make McQueen Birthday Cake is decorated with white chocolate buttercream and fun Cars decorations. It is a black-and-white triple-layer cake with silky smooth white chocolate buttercream, a Cars cake wrap, M&Ms, sprinkles, and a fun finish-line banner.

Featured Image for post Cars Birthday Cake

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I love making cakes for friends and recently had a request for a Cars birthday cake! First, we needed to figure out if we wanted to make a cake, Birthday Cupcakes, or Easy Strawberry Cupcakes. In the end, we landed on a simple layered cake!

We talked about making a checkered cake to match the checkered flags on top, but decided to make a black and white triple layer cake instead, so the cake was much easier to make. And if you’re looking for tips on how to make the easiest layered cakes, check out my Baking Tips for Layer Cakes post!

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
How To Make A McQueen Birthday Cake
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McQueen Birthday Cake

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Use cake mix: You don’t have to make your layers from scratch; you can simply use your favorite cake mix!
Easy on your wallet: Cakes are VERY expensive to buy from a bakery or your local cake artist, so make your own! You’ll save hundreds of dollars and impress your family/friends at the same time.
Pre-made decorations: For the intricate details, you can order them off Amazon. For example, I bought the Cars wrap from Amazon. It’s an edible sugar sheet image that you wrap around the cake.
Buttercream frosting: The buttercream frosting for this cake is so silky, and everyone loved it.

See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How To Make A McQueen Birthday Cake

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray; line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper round. Spray the paper rounds and sides of the pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour.
In a small mixing bowl, combine milk, egg whites, vanilla extract, and almond extract; set aside.
Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until the mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.
Add all but ¼ cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using a handheld mixer) for 1 ½ minutes. Add the remaining ¼ cup of the milk mixture and beat for 30 seconds more. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl. Return the mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.
Spread batter evenly in the prepared cake pan. Bake 23 to 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean,
Let the cake rest in the pan for 3 minutes. Loosen from the sides of the pan with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto a wire rack. Reinvert onto an additional wire rack. Let cool completely, about 1 ½ hours.

Recipe FAQs

How do you make the chocolate layers look black?

Add ¼ teaspoon of black gel food coloring to make the chocolate layers look black.

How do you make sure the Cars wrap goes on straight?

We marked a line around the cake so it would go on straight. There was just a little gap in the back where the wrap was just a little too short, but no one seemed to notice.

How many people does this cake serve?

It can serve around 8-12 people depending on the slice size.

Expert Tips

Cake mix: For the chocolate layers, I used Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake.
Cover the black cake: I used one batch of the frosting to do two crumb coats on the cake to hide the black layer completely.
Let the cake cool: Make sure the cake is cooled, or even better refrigerated, before you put the buttercream frosting on. This will keep it from melting the frosting.
Refrigerate overnight: I refrigerated the cake overnight, and then, on the day of the party, I made an additional half batch of frosting to make the final frosting layer.

Triple Layer Black and White Cars Birthday Cake.

More Cake Recipes To Try

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5 from 5 votes

This easy-to-make McQueen Birthday Cake is decorated with white chocolate buttercream and fun Cars decorations.

Prep Time15

Cook Time25

Total Time40

Servings: -12 servings

Author: Melissa Griffiths

Ingredients

½ cups whole milk room temperature
3 large egg whites room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 cup + 2 tablespoons cake flour
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened but still cool

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray; line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper round. Spray the paper rounds and sides of pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour.
In a small mixing bowl, combine milk, egg whites, vanilla extract, and almond extract; set aside
Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.
Add all but ¼ cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1 ½ minutes. Add remaining ¼ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.
Spread batter evenly in prepared cake pan. Bake 23 to 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean,
Let cake rest in the pan for 3 minutes. Loosen from sides of pan with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto a wire rack. Reinvert onto an additional wire rack. Let cool completely, about 1 ½ hours.

Notes

High altitude changes: I reduced the baking powder to 1 ½ teaspoons, used ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, and ½ cups whole milk + 1 tablespoon for high altitude.
Candy placement: Arrange M&M’s and sprinkles strategically for a balanced look, perhaps creating a “racetrack” pattern.
Edible images: Consider using edible printed images of Lightning McQueen for added detail if you can’t find a suitable cake wrap.
Practice piping: If adding any piped decorations, practice on parchment paper first.

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Comments

5 from 5 votes (5 ratings without comment)

McQueen Birthday Cake

WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

How To Make A McQueen Birthday Cake

Recipe FAQs

Expert Tips

More Cake Recipes To Try

WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?