What’s a mom to do?

Since I made him a 3-dimensional car birthday cake 2 years ago, I was pretty sure I could make him a tractor cake. 

To satisfy his love of the tipping tractors, I made matching tractor cupcakes, too. 

This is a fun boy’s birthday cake idea.  You may also like my Darth Vader cake idea. 

Tractor Cake

Start by baking your favorite cake mix in 2 9×5 loaf pans.   

Let the cakes cool completely.  Then put them in the freezer for 30-40 minutes.  This will help them not crumble as much when you cut them in pieces.  

Once you remove the cakes from the freezer, use a serrated knife to carefully cut off the top of one of the cakes.  This will become the main body of the  cake tractor. 

Then cut off the top of the other cake and cut it in half.  This will form the tractor’s cab.

To put the tractor together, use icing between the layers to “glue” them together. 

Once the body is made, ice the entire cake.  We chose a light green color, but you could make your tractor birthday cake any color your child likes. 

For wheels, add 2 chocolate donuts on the back, using a bit of icing to hold them on.  

You can use mini donuts for the front wheels, or use chocolate sandwich cookies.  (This is what I did since I was buying the cookies for the cupcakes already.)

Use decorator icing to add windows to the tractor.  

Then, stick a pretzel rod into the tractor as a smoke stack.  

I smeared extra icing on the cake plate and crumbled a few graham crackers for “dirt.”

Tractor Cupcakes

If you plan on having kids at the party, tractor shaped cupcakes are a must!  They are so much easier than having to deal with cutting up a cake for a bunch of anxious little ones.

Kids will love these tipped tractor cupcakes.  

Start by using your favorite cake mix to make cupcakes.  

Once the cupcakes are cool, put them in the freezer for 10 minutes.  This will help with crumbling later.  

When you remove the cupcakes from the freezer, slice off just a bit of one side of each cupcake.  Then stand the cupcake on this cut side to give it the tipped tractor look.

Use a mini candy bar to make the front of each tractor.  You could also use a wafer cookie.  Just cut a small square on the opposite side that you cut before and squish the candy bar in part way.  

Ice the cupcakes and candy bars.  

Add chocolate sandwich cookies to make the back wheels.  Mini Oreos make the smaller front wheels.  

Finally, break a pretzel stick in half to form a little smoke stack for each cupcake.  

And, if your little one wants the tractors to have eyes, you can add these candy eyes, or make eyes with decorator icing.

Have your own tractor fan at home?  

They will love this tractor cake and coordinating tractor cupcakes.  

You may also like these posts:

• Learning Activities with Vehicles 
• Fire Truck & Fire Prevention Activities 

The post Tractor Cake and Cupcakes first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.