RACE CAR Birthday Party

 About a month ago Peter said he wanted a race car birthday cake.  So, I decided to oblige.  I then decided that we were going to do the whole thing race car themed.  While walking through JoAnn's I happened upon some black and white checkered felt.  Peter was with me and he thought it was the coolest fabric and I agreed.  He carried that fabric around the store until we got it cut.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it or how much to get and so I bought 2 yards.  It was $5.99/ yard and I had a 40% off coupon.  It was only 30 inches wide which really wasn't a problem when I worked with it. 

So here we go.  The invitation.

This was designed by me with the kits Busy Roads and The World is Moving by Kitty Designs (found at Oscraps.com)  I got my ideas for the wording from different sites.  I don't exactly remember where.  I just put in race car birthday party ideas and this is probably a combination of a couple ideas.  I had them printed at Sam's. 

Next I discussed with Peter what he wanted to do for his cake - circle or rectangle shape.  With a round track or oval.  Then after I got a general idea of what he wanted along with some help from his sister we were off.  Trying to figure out how to make a black track.  I went to JoAnn's again and found in the Wilton area some black sugar paper.  It was perfect for what we needed.  I ended up again using my 40% off coupon and actually ended up going back and buying a 2nd one.  I wanted to make a checkered flag to go around the sides.  Anyway here is the cake and a few extra pictures so you can get an idea of what I did.

The grandstands were an idea I found when looking at race car cakes.  I wish I could send you to the link but all they are is frosting covered cardstock with sprinkles.  I thought it was such a cute idea and had to incorporate it in.

The border is M&M's, I let the kids put them on and they loved doing that.  I did put a little "flower" border so they would have somewhere to stick them.

The center is just green tinted frosting made to look like the center field of most race tracks.

Lastly, one of my favorite parts - the checkered flag sides.  I cut the sugar paper with my ruler and the pizza cutter.  It made it easy.  Then I frosted small sections and added the black squares.

The entire cake is frosted with buttercream frosting.  I found my recipe here at I am a Baker (it is at the way bottom after the cake.)

I used a recipe that I found a couple of years ago for the best chocolate cake - and I really think it is.  I think most of the kids gobbled up their pieces.  Of course I cut really small pieces, since I know most kids just waste the cake at this age.

Next we had to have race cars.  I found this idea at How Does She?  I loved the idea of race cars made from cardboard boxes.  I think they turned out pretty cute.

I invited 4 boys and Peter  and so I decided to make 5cars.  They were way easy to make and I had everything except the paint.  I made the car numbers similar to race cars in Nascar, although I only had 3 cans of paint and so I had to make some of the cars different then the original cars.  I made one with the #4 since Peter was turning 4.  They were fun to make.

Since I knew that the kids would probably only race for a little while I thought I better come up with something else.  Off to the garage I went and found a long piece of wood about 4 feet by 1 1/2 feet.  I found a couple of smaller pieces that were about one inch square by 3 1/2 feet.  I hooked them to the edge and we were able to have matchbox car races on that.  If the wood hadn't been something we need for shelves I would have probably have nailed the sides down instead of clamping.  Either way the kids didn't really care.  At times I saw cars and trucks bigger then the match box size going down.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.

Out of the checkered fabric I made a checkered flag for the races. 

I also made mini checkered flags to go in the goodie bags.  Instead of $1 store items in the bags I bought a matchbox car for each, a big play-doh, a fruit snack and a handful of starbursts.  I would have taken a picture but I didn't really think about it.

I cut the fabric into squares to put under the cake and on the table for the gifts.  Then I took the remaining fabric and made a checkered flag banner or bunting.  I think it turned out pretty good.  I used a grosgrain ribbon to sew it onto. 

Here is the cute birthday boy showing off the bunting. 

I also bought a pack of cones to mark off the race.  If it hadn't been 100+ heat index the day of the party we would have been able to go outside and do the races.  With it so hot outside we ended up doing the races around my kitchen living room "track".  Since we didn't get a chance to race outside I was glad I had set the Cars movie to watch the final race.  It seemed fitting to end the fun with a "real" race.

Happy 4th Birthday to my dear sweet boy!!