Firetruck Cake for Keaton

I love how this cake turned out despite the rough start. 

I made the fireman, fire hydrant, hose, cake board, tires and the birthday boy's name a week in advance in order for them to dry well.

Now on to the cake...
Susan wants a marble cake and I was having a hard time making the cake to a texture that I can carve (durable)  but moist. I have read several tips in carving cakes. One tip is to freeze the cakes for ease in carving. But since I was pressed for time, I just put the cakes in the fridge and hoping to cool them fast enough that I can start carving.

TIP: A good tip I learned to make the cake moist is to brush the cake (15 mins after it came out of the oven) with sugar syrup: 1 cup water, 1 cup water and 1 tsp vanilla extract or water and apricot jam.

 I should have prepared the cake the previous weekend and double wrapped and kept in the freezer. To tell you honestly, I have never frozen any cakes, something that I should try at some point. Every cake decorators seem to be doing it. But I want my cakes baked a day before decorating it.

The first problem I encountered was the red fondant  I bought at the Bulk Barn. It was tearing and cracking when I was covering the cakes.

The second problem was making the firetruck in sections. Covering each section by itself and putting them together side by side did not work well for me. I think it's because I was so much in a hurry that the measurements were not accurate. 
It looked really awful that I was willing to give up.
Almost thought of calling the client that I cannot deliver the cake.

So I made a decistion to remove the fondant cover, assembled the pieces of cakes and iced them together to form a truck. 
I placed it in the fridge and went to bed.

I was basically dreaming on how to decorate this cake in 5-6 hours tops the next morning and be able to deliver on time.

Started at 7AM the next morning and finished at noon!
I DID IT!
Altough in my opinion, with a little more time, there are things that I'd like to improve...but with available time, the cake really turned out wonderful.

What do you think? Would love to hear your opintion.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY KEATON!
Thanks Susan for ordering the cake.

Love all the challenges and learning experience in making this cake.

I have posted more pictures of the truck and I hope you enjoy viewing them