Welcome to my excavator era. Well, it’s more like my sons excavator era and I’m just along for the ride. There’s a yellow toy truck hiding in every corner of our home. Big ones, gigantic ones, small ones, ones with flashing lights, etc. The list goes on.
The first time Miles ever saw one of those construction trucks in real life, his eyes got real wide and his tiny little finger pointed to it and called it a ‘dig & dump’. As I went to correct him, I struggled to find the word that it actually is. And as a result, I just let it be and that’s now what we call them.
So I guess, welcome to my ‘dig & dump’ era.
When it was time to make Miles’ birthday cake, there was no question that it would be an excavator dig & dump cake. I knew this cake would have to be swimming in them. I also knew Oreos would have to be involved since they make the perfect piles of dirt — and because they’re delicious.
Here’s the recipe I used for the cake and buttercream
I used this recipe from The Preppy Kitchen for the Oreo cake. It’s a heavenly recipe and comes out absolutely perfect every time. It’s easy to follow and makes for a perfectly moist cake due to the sour cream added.
Then, for the icing, I used this recipe here from Boston Girl Bakes. The only change I made was I added only 1.5 Oreos since I wanted a few specks of Oreo to come through.
I was really going for a sleek canvas here. Excavator chic if you will. Not only does it look beautiful, but it’s the perfect blank canvas to pour your creativity into. There’s a million different ways you can take it with this base.
Here are some tips to icing the perfect cake
- Repeat after me. The fridge is your friend. Let your cake cool completely and pop the cakes into the freezer to firm up before icing for about 20 minutes. If you put buttercream on a hot cake, it will melt.
- Once your cake/s is chilled start to build your layers on your favorite cake stand. For reference, mine was a four-layer 8” cake with buttercream in between.
- When your cake is layered, use an offset spatula to add the first coat or crumb coat to your cake. Pop it back in the fridge to set and harden before applying another layer of icing. I applied 3 layers total and chilled the cake between each one.
- Use an icing scraper to smooth out the edges. I liked the rustic look to mine so I kept the imperfections.
Where to get the excavator cake toppers
Where else? Amazon. These little guys are the perfect size. Small enough to fit on any size cake — even a cupcake.
