Nascar Cake Countdown 3 days

Working on a Jimmie Johnson cake for one of my coworkers to be delivered on Saturday. Who's Jimmie Johnson you ask? I had the same question (silly me) NASCAR #48 Lowe's Car. Sorry but that is still the extent of my knowledge :) So after some internet searching and receiving a small model car, here's my plan...

An 11x15 rectangular cake decorated in a checkerboard pattern (also known as victory lane). With a 3D race car cake on top decorated with fondant to look like Jimmie Johnson's car (hopefully).

Fondant is a relatively easy medium to work with, imagine modeling clay that tastes like marshmallows. You usually see it on wedding cakes because it looks so perfectly smooth (if done right!) It's flexible so it can form to curves or you can mix it with gum paste and it will harden. It's still edible but depending on the amount of gum paste used, you could break a tooth if you try to eat it!

The engineer in me has to plan ahead and figure out how to make some of the decorations. I sat down tonight to get started on some of the pieces so they could dry by assembly time. Here you see tires, spoiler, door numbers and obviously, Happy Birthday.

Tomorrow I tackle the hood graphics.