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120+ Coolest Firefighter and Fire Truck Cake Ideas

Take a look at these cool homemade Firefighter and Fire Truck cake ideas shared with us by cake decorators from around the world. Along with the birthday cakes here, you’ll also find loads DIY birthday cake-making ideas and how-to tips to inspire your next birthday cake project. Enjoy!

And don’t forget… if you end up with a cool cake, have great tips to share or pictures of awesome birthday cakes you’ve made in the past, share them here and be a part of our coolest birthday cake community.


Latest Firefighter and Fire Truck Cake Ideas



Featured Cakes

Cake by Christie M., Birmingham, AL

Coolest Fire Truck Cake Ideas

I used four packages of cake mix, three white and one chocolate for this fire truck cake. I baked each in two 7×11 loaf pans. Wiltons cake release worked wonders to prevent crumbs. Once cooled we layered two full cakes (to get a 7x 22 base). The cake is on a piece of cardboard covered in parchment paper (made for easy clean-up).

For the back of the truck we only added one additional layer and the front of the truck two more layers, icing between each layer in red icing. I then iced the entire cake in red icing (buy Wiltons or some other cake brand coloring, regular made pink instead of red icing). All the black and yellow piping is a store bought tube. Grey is just white with a little store bought black added.

The windows are Graham crackers covered in white royal icing, the ladder #3 and initials are all out of royal icing. The hoses are black Twizzlers, emergency lights are Dots, and controls are M&M’s and head lights are butterscotch. Tires are Oreo’s.

This fire truck cake took about eight hours to bake and decorate. But his excitement was well worth it.

Cake by Stephanie D., Port Jefferson, NY

Fire Truck Cake

For my son’s second birthday I made a fire truck cake from two 9×12 cakes. I used one cake as the bottom and then cut the other cake in half and then in quarters and stacked them.

I took photos of my son in a fireman costume, mounted it to cardboard and cut it out. I attached a licorice rope to him and then to the truck to look like he is actually spraying the hose. The water is twisted cellophane. I cut a cake board the exact size of the cake and hot glued wooden blocks underneath to lift the truck up.

Fire Truck Cake

This fire truck cake was a tremendous amount of work but so worth it.

Fire Truck Cake

Cake by Karyn M., Huntsville, AL

Fire Truck Cake

The hardest part about making this fire truck cake was achieving a true fire engine red icing. I certainly did not want a pink fire truck! I ended up using seven containers of Wilton’s No Taste Red and let the icing sit overnight (it darkens after a day). Red we wanted and red we got!

To get the shape of the fire truck cake I baked three rectangular sheet cakes. I used two rectangles (stacked) as the truck’s body. I cut the third sheet cake into thirds, one third was used as the cab of the truck and the other two were used (stacked) just to add length to truck. I then trimmed all cakes down the side to get a more narrow truck. Cake was wasted but I didn’t want the truck to look squatty and if it was too wide it would.

For the tires I used Oreo cookies. I made the ladder out of black licorice. The lights are gum drops. The windshield wipers are pretzels. All other detail is done in white or yellow icing. We also made sugar cookies shaped like fire hydrants and the #3 since we did a tour of our local Fire Station #3 and the birthday boy was three. The #3 cookies had flames on them in red and yellow icing

Fire Truck Cake
Fire Truck Cake

Cake by Emily M., Durham, NC

Fire Truck Cake

I filled three layers of cake (two yellow one chocolate) with vanilla buttercream frosting. I made the frosting slightly stiffer knowing that I had three heavy cake layers. The cakes were adapted from the cake doctor; I was looking for one that was between a pound and a typical layer cake, sturdy but not too heavy.

I baked three 13×9 pans and started by cutting a 5 1/4 inch piece lengthwise from each cake. Then I added three 3 1/2 inch pieces to make the cab and the back of the truck. I added dowels for support and put it on cake boards. I crumb coated the whole fire truck cake and then layered it with store bought (Satin Ice) red fondant. I cut some squares for the windows, ladders for the top and a number three out of white fondant (Bakels brand).

Fire Truck Cake

I finished the fire truck cake by adding black to the windows and front fender. I also added black dots to look like the hose connecters (Satin Ice brand). I then used royal icing to “glue” on the dots and mike-n-ikes to look like lights. I finally added Oreos for wheels.

Cake by Tiffany C., Boynton Beach, FL

Fire Truck Cake

Here is a fire truck cake I made for my husband when he got a firefighter job. I used pound cake. A whole loaf for the bottom and cut the other one in half and put it on top. I used red icing (which I couldn’t find at the time so I had to create it with lots of food coloring) then I used black licorice for the ladders, Oreos for the tires and jelly beans for the lights.

The extra fire hydrants and trucks are candles just for decoration. I also put it up on a box so it would be above the pan. I was surprised it came out so well.

Cake by Evelyn B., Dayton, OH

Fire Truck Cake

I wanted to make a 3-D fire truck cake for my son’s third birthday. I thought of the idea after seeing a co-worker’s 3-D school bus cake he purchased for his child’s birthday. I thought “oh wouldn’t that be cool to do as a fire truck? I can do that”. When I expressed the idea to my dear husband he had to challenge me to incorporate real lights and sirens so I did!

Two weeks before the party I prepared white and grey color flow icing and prepared window and wheel insert templates. I made sure to make a few extras incase the icing cracked when I applied it to the cake. I also made some yellow “fire hoses” out of royal icing. I used a “long loaf” pan from Wilton for the cake mold. It takes about one and a half of box mixes of cake batter (nine cups). (Note: the extra cake batter was used for cupcakes).

Fire Truck Cake

My husband purchased a toy fire truck from Toys R Us (about $10) which turned out to be the perfect scale to the long loaf pan. He dissembled the fire truck taking off the two ladders and pulling the wires for the lights and siren out of the toy base. While the cake was baking and cooling I worked on the truck base. I wanted to raise the truck off of the cake board to house the electrical components and to raise the truck so the wheels looked decent.

I used foam board from a craft store. I built two small “towers” four layers tall and one long board to bridge the two which the cake would sit directly on. I then covered the base and the cake board with foil lined cake paper and had to feed the wires through the bottom of the foam board for the lights. I took the casings of two pens and placed them through the cake where the light wires would come through. (Tip: make sure the lights fit through the pens before you place them in the cake. I thought to use straws but they were too narrow). I was now able to tape everything down.

Fire Truck Cake

I used a serrated knife to cut out part of the cake for dimension. Then it was time to ice the cake. Using white red and a little grey buttercream icing I used a #16-tip star pattern all over the truck. Over the red portions I also scattered some red crystal flakes.

Lastly I attached the windows and hoses. I used Oreo cookies for the wheels covered with black buttercream icing. The wheel inserts are made of color flow. With a #3 tip I used yellow buttercream icing to write Connor’s name on the top of the truck as well as the number “3”. I purchased some fireman figurines from the local cake store to place around the fire truck and a fireman’s boot fire hydrant and Dalmatian candles also surrounded the fire truck. They were all attached to the cake board with a dab of buttercream icing.

Fire Truck Cake

Connor, our son as well as all of the guests were “blown away” with the fire truck cake. The fact that the lights and sirens really work was just over the top! It was definitely a big hit! The most time consuming part of the effort was working on the electrical components and assembling the cake base. Once I got to ice the cake that part only took me an hour and a half. It was my most challenging cake yet but so worth it when I saw Connor’s reaction. He loved it!

Cake by Iliana L., Mt. Airy, MD

Fire Truck Cake

To prepare this fire truck cake I made four yellow cakes in regular size loaf pans. However, only two Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe (butter recipe) cake mixes were needed. I only put 1/2 of each mix in each loaf pan. After the cakes were baked and cooled I stacked two of them on top of each other for the back of the fire truck. For the front I cut the other two in half and stacked them on top of each other.

In order to make the cake a bit more stable I stuck two kabob sticks through the front of the cake to the back. I broke another kabob stick in half and stuck it down through the front pieces to keep them in place. To make the different color icing I purchased ready made vanilla icing and added confectioners’ sugar to stiffen it up. It worked out perfectly and tastes good too! Tips # 22, 12 and Bismarck tip #230 were used for the decorating of the cake. For the hoses I used yellow fondant.

The kids were thrilled with this fire truck cake!

Cake by Jeri G., Atlanta, GA

Fire Truck Cake

I bought three coconut (already iced) Pepperidge Farm cakes. (They are in the frozen desserts section of the grocery store around $3.79 each perfectly square shaped). I placed two of the frozen cakes side by side on a cardboard cake plate from Party City. I put the other cake directly on top of the first cake to form the “cab”. Then I sprayed the whole fire truck cake with red dessert spray (Wilton’s Color Mist Food Color Spray -found it at Michael’s in the cake making section). One small can was more than enough.

I used Milano Pepperidge farm cookies (placed horizontally) for the windshield and half cookies (placed vertically) for the side windows. I used gum drops for the head lights and emergency lights. I used a dollop of whip cream for the center emergency light on the roof of the fire truck cake. I used Oreos for the tires, some fire chief decals from party city (not edible) on the sides of the truck. I used chocolate wafers (publix brand) for the ladders, pre made letters for the “Happy Birthday” and M&M’s to form the #’s 0…2. I chose to make it the #2 fire engine since it was my son’s second birthday. I found fire hat hydrant and fire truck candles at Party City.

So this is the perfect recipe for someone who can’t even spread frosting on a cake much less draw “Happy Birthday” or make a cake. Yet it looks home made – my friends (and mom) were very impressed!

Cake by Ann Marie A., Avondale, PA

Fire Truck Cake

I made the fire truck cake using the Wilton Long Loaf pan. I cut about four inches off the end of the loaf and stacked it onto the other end matching up the rounded corners. I used red icing between the layers and let it stand for a few hours. I also added skewers to hold them together just for peace of mind.

For decorations I used two sizes of gum drops for the lights and sirens. I used M&Ms for the control panels and licorice for the ladder. I also used shoe string licorice wrapped around a pretzel rod for a hose reel. This didn’t turn out as well as I hoped so you may want to experiment with this.

The wheels are Oreos with black icing covering the white icing. Since the fire truck cake was too small to serve our guests I made a house from a 9×9 layer cake. I added flames from the roof by melting Life Savers (red orange and pale yellow) in the toaster oven. Once they cooled I cracked them into pieces. I used colored icing to create the lawn and the road. I added landscaping by making gum drop trees and bushes.

Fire Truck cake by Rekha T., Kerala, India

Fire Truck Cake

My son Joel is so fond of all types of vehicles so I decided to make a vehicle cake for his 2nd birthday. I searched a lot and found your site very interesting. He has a fire truck so I selected a fire truck cake to make since it’s familiar to him. I got lots of tips from your site.

First of all I baked a 12.5 x 12.5 inch equal weight cake with nuts and walnuts. Then cut it into 2 -5 x 10 inch cakes, stacked them one over other on a foil covered plywood piece which was raised on 2 -1/2″ x 5″. The remaining cake pieces I used to make the cabin.

Fire Truck Cake

I covered the fire truck cake with Christmas red colored butter icing and put white border lines. I used cherries for the lights on the top and round mint candies for the headlights. Cut cheese slices to make the doors and glasses of the cabin, and put white icing around the cheese slices to highlight it. I used M&M candies for the controls and straw as the ladder. I used Nut King Cookies as the wheels and put a cherry inside it to make it more attractive and attached to the cake using a tooth pick.

I placed a fire man from my son’s fire engine to make it more realistic. then my husband put the name using chocolate chips. The cake became a big hit among the kids. And Joel enjoyed a lot.

Fire Truck cake by Barbara A., Raleigh, NC

Fire Truck Cake

I made this fire truck cake for my niece’s 3rd birthday. She wanted an orange fire truck cake. Her wish is my command so I set out to do just that! I looked on this website for ideas.

I used a 9×13 sheet cake as well as one baked in a loaf pan. I cut the sheet cake the long way and stacked it for the body of the truck. The loaf pan made the cab. I used chocolate covered Oreos for the wheels and whole gumdrops for the lights. I cut the gumdrops in half for the headlights. I used Fondant for the hose.

Of course being that it was for a little girl I made it as ‘girly’ as possible with a few hearts and lots of flowers.

Fire Truck cake by Kelly H., Peoria, AZ

Fire Truck Cake

I found this cake on the Family Fun website. It was really an easy cake to assemble. I had to buy the red frosting because it was incredibly difficult to avoid a pink fire engine just using food coloring!