Recipe: Racing Car Cake by Shadow Baking’s Florian Fritsch

This story appears in our July 2025 Nostalgia issue, presented by Up, where we asked 13 professional bakers to recreate cakes from the iconic The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book.

My take on the racing car cake was to make it a chocolate layered ganache cake covered with vanilla buttercream. Also, the strips for the garnish are made with marshmallow.

Cake ingredients

240g bakers flour
60g cocoa powder
8g baking powder
350g caster sugar
4g salt
230g milk
100g oil
100g whole eggs (approx 2 large eggs)
230g boiling water

Cake method

Preheat your oven on full fan at 175°C.

Grease a lamington tin (28cm x 18cm) for baking.

Mix and sieve bakers flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add caster sugar and salt, then mix with paddle attachment on speed 1.

Add the milk, oil and eggs to the mix on speed 1.

Boil the water, then pour it into the mix on speed 1.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until a knife inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little, then demould the cake and allow to cool completely before cutting layers.

Ganache ingredients

680g dark choc, 65% cocoa
600g cream
300g unsalted butter
180g icing sugar
Pinch of salt

Ganache method

Break the chocolate into a bowl in small pieces.

In a saucepan, bring to boil the cream, butter and icing sugar (be careful to not let the mixture overflow when boiling the cream).

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and mix gently until fully emulsified, then add salt.

Let it set in the fridge about 3 to 4 hours or at room temp until firm about 8 hours.

Buttercream ingredients

180g egg whites (from approx 6 large eggs)
300g caster sugar
600g butter (room temp)
10g yellow food colouring
Vanilla to taste

Buttercream method

Fill a third of a pot with water and bring to the boil.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, place the freshly cracked egg whites (no yolks) and the caster sugar, whisk together to combine.

Place the bowl over the pot of boiling water. Keep whisking gently until the mix reaches 50°C or until the caster sugar is fully dissolved.

Place the mixing bowl onto your stand mixer again. With the whisk attachment, whisk on full speed until cool.

Reduce the speed to 1 then slowly add the room temperature butter.

Change the attachment from the whisk to the paddle attachment.

Beat for another 10 minutes.

If buttercream splits, heat up the side of the bowl slightly – this will help bring the mix together again. Either use a small blowtorch or mix gently over the boiling water.

Marshmallow ingredients

300g caster sugar
160g water 1
15g gelatine powder
160g hot water 2
3g vanilla extract

Marshmallow method

Heat the caster sugar and water 1 in a saucepan until boiling or until sugar is completely dissolved.

In a bowl, mix hot water 2 with the gelatine using a whisk to avoid clumps. Add sugar mixture then set aside until cool to room temp.

Place the mix into the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk on high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the mix is nice and thick.

Divide the marshmallow mix in three bowls:
• One To keep white.
• One to colour green with few drops of liquid green food colouring.
• One to colour black by adding a small amount of charcoal powder.

Prepare a silicone mat or parchment paper with spray oil – this makes it easier to peel off later.

Using a piping bag and a plain nozzle size 6:
• Pipe white marshmallow into long thin strips (approx 30cm).
• Pipe green marshmallow on each side the white strips, making sure it’s touching the white marshmallow.
• Pipe green marshmallow into a small circle then cover with desiccated coconut (this will be the steering wheel).

Make 3 to 4 sets of strips and allow to set at least 1 hour.

If you feel confident with the black marshmallow, pipe directly onto the cake once assembled: around the seat, and to finish the front and rear bumper. Also pipe a large dot where the steering wheel will go.

Assembling the cake

Trim the top off the cake so you have a flat, even surface. Then cut the cake into 3 even layers.

Spread some ganache on a cake board and stick on the first cake layer. Spreading evenly, add a layer of ganache to the cake, then add another cake layer on top, then more ganache. Keep repeating until you have used all the cake layers.

Making the racing car by following the cutting and assembling instructions in the Women’s Weekly book.

For the wheels, cover with ganache and roll in desiccated coconut mixed with cocoa powder. (Use just enough cocoa powder to darken colour.)

Create racing car numbers from store-bought black fondant. Roll out to desired thickness with a rolling pin then cut with sharp knife.

Add lollies for the head and rear lights. Use square liquorice to attach wheels to the body of the car.

The racing car cake recipe first appeared in the The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, published in 1980.