Wait until you taste this little yum-tastic dessert, I'm proud to say I created for Zach's Lightning McQueen Birthday Party...
Remember dirt cake? Basically a potted plant made from crumbs of Oreo cookies. Do you remember the issue with dirt roads from the movie?? Lightning McQueen cannot turn on dirt and his Best Friend Tow Mater teaches him how to turn on dirt. From here I was up and racing…
I planned to back Cookies N' Cream Cupcakes, but to be honest with you, I
Cheated! Yep, I used regular old, everyday boxed cake mix to make these delicious Dirt Cake Cupcakes with a frosted crumb topping and an Oreo Cookie tucked inside.
How-To Dirt Road Cupcakes…
- Enlist a little helper... The more adorable the helper the better!
- Make your cake mix as directed on the box – I prefer to sneak in some vanilla pudding powder, it will make the cupcakes extra fluffy.
- Crush about 2 sleeves of Oreo cookies
- Line all your cupcake tins – we used Lightning McQueen cupcake tins for the theme
- Place a tiny (really tiny) dollop of batter in the bottom of each tin. Do Not use all the batter!
- Place a FULL size Oreo cookie in each cupcake tin, on top of the batter you already placed in there.
- Mix ½ of the crushed Oreo cookies into your remaining batter.
- Fill each of the cupcake tins with the remaining batter
- Share an Oreo cookie with your little helper...
- Bake as directed on the box
Next day, once all the cupcakes are completely cool, begin your assembly...
- I used a pre-made, package of frosting… No need to be neat with this, because it will be covered up. Frost the cupcakes
- Place your remaining crushed Oreo cookies into a bowl
- Take your frosted cupcake, flip it over and dip it into the crushed Oreo cookies – TRICK – dip the cupcake into the cookies right after the cupcake is frosted. If you wait till the end the crushed cookies may not stick because the frosting will have dried
- Add your homemade Cars cut-outs!
I made the Cars cutouts by printing extra small versions of the printouts I used on the Food Labels. I glued a toothpick to the cutout and backed it with some construction paper. PERFECT!
All Done! Mmmm. They are SO yum-tastic… I actually never got one at the party and needed to split the ONE remaining cupcake with Andy!
I wish I can take credit for Zach's Tow Mater Cake cake created for Zach World Grand Prix Birthday 
Party… However, all the credit goes straight to my dear friend, Danielle Peregrim. Danielle also designed the ballerina cupcakes for Lily's Ballerina Birthday!
Odd as it may sound… Tow Mater is Zach’s favorite Cars car, I know, cra-cra, right? So when Danielle asked if she could make a cake for Zach’s birthday, we knew exactly what kind of cake would be perfect for our little racer.
Danielle used her expertise to create an absolutely darling cake, which the family is still chatting about! These are the little ins and outs of Danielle’s creation…
- The wheels were created by using fudge Donuts, giving Tow Mater a tire to stand on as he rolled into Zach’s party.
- Tow Mater’s headlights were brought to life by the use of white chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
- Tow Mater has lights on the top of his head which were constructed using wrapped Rolo candies
- Tow Mater also has an exposed front engine. Danielle created the engine by using a Kit Kat Bar to look like a grill and topped it with an upside down Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
- The finishing touch for Tow Mater… the tow lift on Tow Mater’s back. Danielle constructed the tow lift by using pretzels sticks and molded a hook she created by hand.
The best was, not only did Danielle’s creation look spectacular, but when we cut into it… Oh My Gosh… She baked an utterly delicious chocolate cake our guests completely gorged themselves on.
Delightfully scrumptious… Just writing about it makes me want to call her and ask her to bake a little cake just for me!