Coolest John Deere Tractor and Trailer Cake 30

by Sarah U.
(Fort Myers, FL)

John Deere Tractor and Trailer Cake

I made this John Deere tractor and trailer cake using the recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa powder. I like to use this cake when I'm making a shaped cake, because it is much more dense than a regular boxed cake mix.

I had my husband build a stand out of wood for both the tractor and trailer ahead of time. I then made 5 9x13 sheet cakes and cut them to the size I needed to make the tractor. It was 3 rectangle layers and 3 square layers. I frosted it with chocolate frosting and then covered it in green mm fondant. I had to mix leaf green and a small amount of black coloring to get the John Deere green color. I then used yellow mm fondant for the stripe and also for the rims of the tires.

The tires were made from donuts, double donuts for the back tires, single for the front, and small sweet 16 donuts for the trailer tires. I placed toothpicks inside the donut and into the cake to hold them close to the cake.

For the trailer I used yellow fruit loop cereal straws which I put together using yellow buttercream icing. I then place toasted coconut covered marshmallows in the trailer to resemble hay. I also colored a bag of coconut green and then toasted it to be placed under the cake to make it appear to be driving on grass. I also make an orange safety triangle out of mm fondant which I placed on the back of the tractor and I made a small license plate which I placed on the back of the trailer.

To make the license plate, I Googled Myspace license plate generator and just selected the state I wanted it to be and typed in the birthday boy's name and age and printed out the page that was on my screen. I then laminated it using clear packing tape and glued it to the wood part of the trailer.

It was a big hit at the party.