VW camper van and modern vintage birthdays…

I’ve been so busy lately!  The Easter holiday was a blur; mainly because I was on a mission to make a VW camper van cake to celebrate Mick’s 60th birthday! 

Now when I’m in cake class, I have my teacher demonstrating how to make the cake.  She is always on hand to help answer questions … this time, I was on my own!  My teacher loaned me a book with basic instructions for the cake, but it only showed how to make a cake topper, and I wanted to make a full sized cake. I think I bit off more than I could chew … literally! 

It took a whole afternoon just to mix and bake the sponge as the cake tin I’d bought was huge!  While the cake was baking, I iced the board and made the icing sugar base that the cake would rest on.  I was trying to colour white icing black …nigh on impossible.  I settled for a dark grey and painted the edge that would be seen with black food colouring; a good compromise I thought … Once cooled, I cut the sponge into a general camper van shape and added the jam and buttercream … and called it a night.  

Day two, I started icing the cake early morning.  It took 1.5kg of grey icing to cover the cake.  At least now I had a fair idea how big the final cake would be. I made the headlamps, side lights, door handles, and wing mirrors as these would need to dry overnight so they would keep their shape on the finished cake.  I enlisted my daughter’s help to make the VW sign for the front of the van. She had the patience to cut the shape freehand … wow!  She made a fab job of it!  I dusted the top half of the cake with edible silver dust for the windows.

Day three dawned, the day of the birthday celebration, and I was up early to finish the cake. I hadn’t even had chance to make his card yet!

I coloured the next layer of icing pale blue, measured and rolled it out once… twice…three times… maybe more – I lost count – I just couldn’t get it how I wanted it to look!  I took a breath and went for it…not bad…could be better, but I was ok with that.  I cut the top of the van freehand – it wasn’t perfect but my daughter said it looked good, so I moved on to making the tyres, windscreen wipers, etc – time was ticking after all…

By now the cake was quite heavy – it contained 1lb flour, 1lb sugar, 1lb butter and 8 eggs… and not only was there all that butter, sugar and flour in it, but I reckon there was about 4lb of fondant icing on it too!    

I was on my feet for the whole day – the fiddly bits took lots of time, and I finally finished with an hour to spare.  I just had time to get ready to go to Mick’s party, but I didn’t have time to make him a card!  Oh my word! That’s what I do for goodness sake!  My daughter said she thought he would forgive me as the cake was so special and personal to him.  I was exhausted but really pleased with how it looked…

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My daughter bought sparkler candles for the cake …

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I know that Mick loved it – the front number plate said “UR 60” and the back one had his name on it. They thought the cake was too good to cut into!  I finally got a text a couple of days later to say they had plucked up the courage to cut the cake, and that it tasted as good as it looked so I was a happy bunny!

Although I didn’t get to make Mick’s card, I did make a card for a friend who turned 50 recently. 

I am always inspired by the beautiful projects on Jenni’s blog, and cased one of her cards, using similar colours, inking up my wedding sweet and french foliage stamp sets from Stampin’ Up with crumb cake ink. 

I added a teeny tiny crumb cake bow and some rhinestones too…

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I just love these colours together – the pink goes so well with the crumb cake card and ink. 

I think the card looks a little bit vintage but with a modern feel …love it!

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All papercraft supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Card recipe: cardstock: crumb cake, pretty in pink, very vanlilla;  stamp sets:  wedding sweet, french folliage; inks: crumb cake; accessories:  crumb cake seam binding ribbon, rhinestones, glue dots, stampin dimensionals.

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Thanks for dropping by today

16 Responses to “VW camper van and modern vintage birthdays…”

  1. Absolutely fantastic! So great you could make a fortune with your cakes x

  2. WOW that is just fab!!! Your cakes are a work of art.

  3. Absolutely stunning cake – you are one talented lady!!! That’s for sure xx

  4. Super cake so well made Lovely colours

  5. Oh Gill, this is just absolutely stunning!! Youve really excelled yourself this time – cant wait to see hat else you make xxx

  6. Wow what a brilliant cake! I’d love to be that good at cake decorating!

  7. Oh I soooo want one of your cakes to match our lovely bus!

  8. flippin ‘eck Gill – that cake it AMAZING!!!

  9. The cake looks amazing! Can I ask what size it is? I’m going to try & make one for my husband’s birthday but now having done anything like this before, I’m unsure of what tins to use? Do you think 2 x 2lb loaf tins would work? And what type of cake is best for carving? Would be grateful for any tips.

    • Hi Chris. Thank you for your message, hope I can help a bit.

      I followed the instructions by Karen Davies from a cake magazine printed a few years ago. I know she has several books out, so you might be able to get hold of a copy either from a library or from her website. The instructions were for a cake topper, so I just scaled it up to the size I wanted. I used 2 x 2lb loaf tins but to be honest it turned out a bit too big. I made a sponge cake and the mix was enough for two 9” sandwich cakes, and scaling it up to that size brought its own problems. If I were to do it again I would definitely go for something a little smaller – at least half that size. The cake was really heavy when it was finished with all the icing as well as the cake itself. Karen’s step-by-step instructions were excellent, with lots of photos so they were easy to follow.

      I find sponge cake easier to model, and used a sharp, serrated bread knife and put the cake on a turntable to cut and shape it.

      Don’t try to colour the darker icing colours like black or red yourself – you’ll spend an age and your icing will be sticky before you’ve even got to the colour you want, so best to buy them ready coloured.

      Allow yourself plenty of time to make it – probably best to do over 2 or 3 days. There was lots of details and some needed drying time too, such as the tyres.

      So, good luck with your cake – I’m sure it will be amazing.

      Gill x

  10. Awesome cake and stunning card too LbyJ! The colour combos keep it girlie, but grown up girlie – very chique! I especially like the two off set rhinestones! I want to make (?) a Mystery Machine (Scooby Doo)/Dr. Who’s Tardis/Noah’s Ark cake for my sons 18th in September! 🙂 xXx

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