Volkswagen Camper Van Cake

Last week it was our dear friend's, Kabi's Birthday. He turned 18 - again:) khmmm. For this grand occasion I created something special: his favorite car a Volkswagen Camper Van. He has the Lego version of this car so a few days before his birthday I helped myself to his little Lego figures (so I don't have to make them from sugar paste). I think it turned out great, especially as I was making my own templates on the go. During my research for this cake, I found it frustrating that page after page demanded money to check a simple template/tutorial (it is not that they invented anything new).....Anyway i hope you enjoy this free Volskwagen Camper Van Cake tutorial, step by step.

As usual I made a red velvet cake sponge, as I know that this version has good structure and it doesn't matter if you bake it two days ahead, since it just gets better a few days after baking. 

For the sponge
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1 vanilla
165g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
8g baking powder
red food colouring * more on this topic in the Tricks and Recommendations 
1 cake board

For the butter cream
80g butter softened
180g icing sugar
20g cream cheese

For the filling
150g soft cheese
100g white chocolate
150g double cream
1 dream topping
70g dessicated coconut

To cover:
500g white icing
250g  black icing(black sugar paste)-I used an already coloured one, as I read in other blogs that if you try to add food colouring to the white icing you should work on it for quite a while to achieve a nice even black colour.....and I didn't had the time for that
250g red icing (red sugar paste)

To decorate:
Silver edible paint - optional
Green edible paint
Edible glue
Edible pen - optional
Ruler
Paintbrush
Spatula knife
Cake smoother

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the butter and the sugar into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs,vanilla, salt and half of the flour to prevent the mixture from curdling. Add the remaining flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and give it a final mix.

Add the food colouring and mix well. 

Put the mixture in a 20X25cm prepared tin and bake it for 1hr and 15minutes, but check the sponge after an hour. If the skewer inserted into the center comes out clean then it is ready. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes than put it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the filling

Whip the double cream to stiff peaks, then add the cream cheese, melted white chocolate dessicated coconut and the dream topping and mix again. Put it into the fridge so it stiffens up a bit before applying.

With your cake leveler cut the now completely cold sponge in half horizontally, then cut off the edges on either side then in half vertically. This gave me two 11cmX20 cm rectangles (cut in half horizontally:

 

Put some cream on your cake board (you can see on the top right picture that the cream is peeking out from underneath the first layer). This cream will mend the sponge to the board so it won't move when you transport the cake.

Sandwich together all layers with the cream and put the cake into the fridge for at least 30 minutes for the filling to be hardened so you can shape it more easily.

Once the cake is cooled and a bit more solid you can start your carving: I used a knife to create the curved front and slightly curvy back. I also carved a small part of the top(creating to rooftop effect - once i have icing on the top you will see what i mean) off and removing a tiny amount of sponge from the bottom (all around)- I will explain later why.

 

As it was a fee style exercise I guessed where the wheels should be and carved out the wheels. We need this sponge for the actual wheels so try to remove that sponge part in one piece.

For the butter cream

Cream together the softened butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the cream cheese and mix again.

Spread the butter cream thinly on the surface of the sponges,try to smooth the cream with an offset spatula knife for a nice finish. Don't forget to cover the 4 little wheels with butter cream- but before you do that make the "whleel"-sponge smaller so even with the icing on top you can fit it back into the whole - NOT LIKE ME. 

Refrigerate until set to the touch and then spread the remaining butter cream over the cake to give a perfect finish.

Once you have two layers of butter cream on the cake (as smooth as possible) you can start applying the icing layers.

To cover

Be careful with the sugar paste as it drys out quickly so if you don't use it wrap it in cling film.Make sure your work surface is clean and dry before you kneed the black sugar paste until warm and pliable. Use some icing sugar to dust your work surface and roll out  a tiny amount of black icing. Cut an 5mm wide strip and cover the very bottom of the cake. As the car's body not supposed to touch the ground I cut a tiny amount of sponge off from the bottom. By covering it with black icing I hope to make the bottom invisible.

Now you can roll out the white icing (approx. 350g-400g) on the work surface (dusted with icing sugar) to 3-4mm thickness to cover the van. Carefully lift over the centre of the cake and lay onto the butter cream layer. Dust your icing smoother with some icing sugar and rub the icing gently over the cake. Don't rush this part as it will make the whole cake awful if you make a mistake at this stage.

On the edges smooth with one hand and keep lifting the icing with the other (I am sure there are plenty of Youtube videos available on this technique).Use a sharp knife to trim the edges and the spaces for the wheels.Save the trimming for other decorations. 

Now you can see the top better:by carving a small edge off from the top it creates a roof-top effect. 

Using the remaining of the black icing cover the 4 wheels and craft 2 number plates.

Using white icing prepare the accessories: 4 small rounds for the alloy, 4 wheel bolts, 2 handles, 4 big lights, 2 small lights and a surf board.

   

Support the Surf boards to end, so it takes up a curved shape once it is dry. I used my edible glitter paint to personalise the number plate and paint some of the head lights and wheel bolts.

Now comes the hard part: to create the iconic curved icing for the van. I used a piece of paper, a scissor and a pen.....I took me about 10 minutes until i was happy with the shape but in the end I got my template. Once I was happy with the curve I cut out the spaces for the whleels. The front wheel should be totally visible while the back wheel should be half covered (only if you can fit in your wheels properly......I learnt a lot from this project).

  

Push the wheels into their place (carefully as the icing is probably still soft), then with edible paint glue on the two cut out red panels (one at the time). Try to be careful so the panels don't sink (leaving a red gluey patch exposed),supporting the panels with a palet knife from the bottom until the glue sets (it takes about 2-3 minutes).

Until the red panels totally set I prepared the grass on both sides. Simply roll out some white icing and cut a wave in the middle. Place the two parts on either side of the van and trim off the ends hanging off from the board. I used some edible glue on the board just to keep the grass intact. With a paint brush create some grass effect. You can also prepare some road markings if you wish. 

I have to apologise as I got too excited at this point and totally forgot to take more pictures.

Roll out some black icing and using your ruler cut out 4 long strips (all the same height). It is totally down to your preference but i cut two blocks for the front - securing all parts with edible glue - 4 "blocks" to the sides and I left the back windscreen as i long strip.

Using your white icing cut out two long narrow strips for the bumpers (one on the front one on the side) and three more strips for the roof rack. Now all you have to do is glue on the lights and number plates and using your edible pen create the Volkswagen symbol. I tried and failed to do this from icing so that is why I opted for the pen.

It is very important that after you finished with your cake you leave it on room temperature so all icing hardens up (otherwise it will melt down if you put it into the fridge like that).

Until the last moment - when I presented the cake - I left it in the fridge because of the coconut filling. 5 of us only managed to demolish half the cake, mind you we just finished a massive Thai dinner. 

   

Chocolate Fingers Celebration Cake with Red Berries

It is my friend's birthday today so true to traditions I baked her a birthday cake. I always wanted to make a similar cake but the chocolate cigarellos just way out of my budget range(for a small cake  it would cost 30-40 pounds at least). But, there is a cheaper alternative: Chocolate fingers! I modified my previous flourless brownie recipe (but added some flour to make it more sturdy) as I just couldn't have enough of it since yesterday.

Chocolate Fingers Celebration Cake with Red Berries

Ingredients for the cake
250 g dark chocolate broken into pieces (around 60%-70 cocoa solids)
250 g unsalted butter, diced
100 g golden caster sugar
4 medium eggs
100 g  ground almonds
50 g plain flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder, sifted
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

For the cream and decoration
250 g mascarpone
100 g dark chocolate broken into pieces
2-5 tbsp Amaretto liqueur
2.5 box of Cadbury Chocolate Fingers

300 g raspberries
150 g strawberries

red ribbon for decorating
2 coloured pearl headed pins

Preheat the oven to 170C and prepare two 19 cm sandwich tin.

Melt the chocolate (250 g) with the butter in a bowl set over a pan with a little simmering water in it. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and stir to combine, then leave to cool slightly. Add the eggs to the chocolate mixture, one by one, beating after each addition until the mixture is very glossy.

Gently fold in the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and cinnamon without overmixing.

Spread the chocolate mixture in the tins and bake for 25-35 minutes. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean with just a few moist crumbs on it.

In the meantime  you can prepare the filling. Melt the 100 g chocolate in a bowl set over a pan with a little simmering water in it. Remove from the heat then leave to cool slightly. Add the mascarpone and work it until fully incorporated then add Amaretto liqueur to taste (as this cake made for a birthday girl, I wasn't shy with the amount:))

When the cake is ready and completeley cooled, level with a cake leveller. Place one layer on the cake stand and spread some chocoalte filling and sandwich with the other sponge layer.

Cover the cake with the rest of the chocolate cream (leaving a thicker layer on the top rather than the sides) and start to press lightly the chocolate fingers to the sides. You should face the cake eye level otherwise after a few chocolate you tend to misplace the fingers and they won't stand straight.

I prepared the bow while baking the sponge. Just cut a piece of ribbon, tie it, then insert a headed pin from behind. Cut a bigger piece of ribbon, tie it around the cake and fix it with another headed pin(obviously please wash the pins before use, and just before cutting the cake remove the ribbon with the needles to avoid any accidents). When you happy with the position of the ribbon just insert the bow on top.

Place or arrange the washed fruits on top.............and you can start preparing for the birthday party.

and Happy Birthday Rimma!!!!!

"Mum to be" Battenberg Cake

I made a cake for my colleague who had her leaving presentation this week, to start her new Yummy Mummy life. We didn't know the sex yet so I made a cake topping with generic colours, try to avoid the blue or pink. I made a battenberg cake as that is Ali's favourite, which was the first for me: also for baking and tasting. It turned out quite good, and the team demolished the cake in a short space of time. I used the battenberg recipe from the BBCgoodfood website.

"Mum to be" Battenberg Cake

Ingredients for the almond sponge

175 g very soft butter

175 g golden caster sugar

140 g self-raising flour

50 g ground almond

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 medium eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Ingredients for the pink sponge

1 X ingredients for almond sponge

pink/red food colouring 

For the cake decoration

200 g apricot jam

500 g marzipan (I used golden marzipan)

little icing sugar, for dusting

250 g brown icing (for the teddy bear)

some different coloured icing ( I used Renshaw Funky Flavoured Sugargough, as you can have 4X100g in a pack at all different colours)

edible writing pan

You have to prepare the decoration at least two days ahead as the icing needs time to harden. I  just used a video on youtube- to find a tutorial: just type in: fondant bear. Actually is like playing with play dough. It isn't difficult, as you can see the bear, duck and the train is recognisable and actually this is my very first try with icing sculpting.

So I prepared the toppings two days in advance and just left in the living room to harden. 

Heat the oven to 180C and prepare a round baking pan. To make the almond sponge, put the butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl. Beat with an electric whisk until the mix comes together smoothly. Scrape into the tin, spreading evenly and bake for 25-30 minutes-when you spoke with a skewer, it should come out clean. Cool the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling while you make the second sponge.

For the pink sponge, prepare another round tin. Mix all the ingredients together as above but don't add the almond extract. Fold in some pink pink food colouring then scrape it all into the in and bake as before.

To assemble level the cakes(cut off the top if you have a little dome) and cut the sponges in half (all sponge layers should be the same height). Depending on the high of your sponge layers(sponge circles should be the same with and height) start cutting out sponge circles. For this cake I had 5 sponge circles. 

When you finished cutting one sponge layer lift out every second sponge circle, place it on top on the others and use it as the template. To make up the battenberg layers just use a pink, then a almond sponge till you made up the whole sponge layer. 

To assemble, heat the jam in a small pan until runny, then sieve. Brush the sponge layer with jam , than lay another layer on top but reversing the order of sponges.

When you finished with the cake, brush the surface with the remaining jam. Roll out the marzipan on a lightly dusted surface with icing sugar to just big enough to cover the cake. Carefully lift the marzipan and smooth over the cake. 
Place on top the decoration and serve:)

And this is the cake while cutting. I apologise as I don't have the best mobile to take a picture and in the office we don't really have proper knifes to slice a cake sharply.

Halloween Chocolate and Orange Cake

So it is Halloween Night! After work I started baking, and the end result was yummy.... except the cake didn't have time to chill properly, but nobody complained. I used the chocolate sponge form the BBC Good Food Website...and the orange cream is a last minute made up creation.

Halloween Chocolate and Orange Cake

For the sponge
150 g self-raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
175 g butter at room temperature
175 g golden caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1-3 tbsp milk
100 g 70% dark chocolate, melted and cooled

For the cream
250 g soft cheese
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 1 orange
3-5 tbsp icing sugar
150 ml double cream
1 tsp powdered gelatine
orange food colouring

For the decoration
50g dark chocolate
black icing
edible icing pen-white

Heat the oven to 180 C. Butter and base line your 23 cm round cake tin with baking parchment.

Put all the cake ingredients except the chocolate in a  large bowl. Beat them together with an electric mixer until you have a creamy mixture, then fold in the melted chocolate. Add a little more milk if the mix is too stiff- it should fall easily form a spoon.

Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes or until the sponge springs back when pressed. Cool the cake than cut in half with a cake leveller.

For the filling, mix all ingredients in a big bowl except the double cream and the gelatine.

Heat the double cream in a heavy based pan to boil. Take off from the heat and add the powdered gelatine and mix well to dissolve any lumps. Cool down the mixture to room temperature  then add to the orange mixture. Work together the two mixture and add the food colouring(the amount you need depends on the brand, so use as recommended) and put to the fridge to harden a little.

In the meantime you can prepare the spider...I didn't want the scary one....I am quite happy with a lovely looking spider, so make two balls one should be smaller than the other to create the head. And roll 8 thin "ropes" for the legs. Bend the legs slightly and leave it to dry so it would hold the leg shape for a while after decoration....Draw eyeballs and ...well it is ready.

When the cake is cooled and the orange mixture is solidish, spread one layer to the bottom sponge then sandwich on top the other sponge layer. Spread the remaining of the orange cream on top. Melt 50g of chocolate above boiling water in a bowl and add some double cream if you think it is too thick to pour, then starting from the middle start pouring the chocolate in a spiral movement until you reach the edge of the cake. With a cake tester or any other stick start to draw lines from the middle of the cake to the edge to create the web effect.

Place the spider on top and chill for at least 2 hours.

Enjoy:)

Summer Field Rainbow Cake

It is my sister's 14th birthday!!!!!! As she is staying with me for a month, we had the chance to prepare her cake together! I had this vision before...with the grass, flowers and the butterflies.....that hides a rainbow cake underneath. I have to say it all turned out very well, but I am not truly happy with the cake sponge. I used curd cheese filling and white cake recipe-apparently it is really popular in the US (I never heard about that before). White cake usually used in rainbow cake recipe, as you should leave out the egg yolks, that creates a white sponge-so easier to colour. Anyway I share the recipe...maybe it is just my baking abilities....

I know the food colouring isn't the best for us...but you only have Birthday once a year!

Summer Field Rainbow Cake

Nyári Mezővel borított Szivárvány Torta

For the sponge

290gr plain flour

250g sugar

150g butter/fat

300ml milk

3 tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

1 tsp almond extract

5 egg whites

5 different food colouring

For the filling

150ml coconut milk

400g curd cheese

2 vanilla pod

60g dessicated coconut

85g cream cheese

100ml double cream

4 tbsp icing sugar

zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp Amaretto

green food colouring

For the butterflies and flowers

50g Gum paste/Flower paste

food colouring of your choice

For the grass

80g dessicated coconut

green food colouring

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the flour, sugar, butter,milk, baking powder, salt and almond extract. When it is all mixed add the egg whites and mix it again. Divide the mixture to 5 bowls and add the food colouring to each one. Line the cake tin with baking paper and bake each layer for 20 minutes or until the top springs back if you touch lightly with your fingertip.

In the meantime you can prepare the butterflies and flowers. Divide the flower paste to 3 parts. 

Colour two of them and roll them out on a flat surface. Using your butterfly and flower cutters cut out the shapes. Place the butterflies on a folded paper, so when they dry out and harden the wings will hold their shape.

For the cream mix together all the ingredients with an electric mixer.

You can start layering your cake. When all layers are covered with cream I added some green food colouring to the leftover, so when I cover the cake, the outside layer will be green (in case the dessicated coconut wouldn't cover all surface). 

For the grass simply put the dessicated coconut into a bowl and pour on top the green food colouring(as much as it turns the coconut to green) and start mixing with a silicon spoon to cover all shreds. When you are happy with the result, put the grass on top of the cream (the cream should stuck on the surface as it is wet).

Place on top the butterflies and the flowers....and you are ready. Keep the cake in the fridge.

And you can see the smile on her face when she blew out the candle.

Nikon D90 Camera Cake (White chocolate cream filled red velvet cake)

I made this cake for my friend's 30th birthday. I was really nervous as this is my first novelty cake and we had to transfer the cake to Belgium where we celebrated this occasion. Sadly I haven't made any pictures during the  process, but I do my best to explain how I achieved this look.

Nikon D90 Camera Cake

I made the sponge from red velvet cake as I have a day job and I couldn't afford to have a day off just to create this, but I know that my version of red velvet cake just gets better 2 days after baking. So the plan was to bake it on Monday evening, shape it and cover it with cream on Tuesday evening and put on the royal icing on Wednesday(as we set off 3am on Thursday). 

For the sponge
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1 vanilla
165g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
8g baking powder
red food colouring * more on this topic in the Tricks and Recommendations 
1 cake board

For the buttercream
80g butter softened
200g icing sugar
20g cream cheese

For the filling
150g soft cheese
100g white chocolate
150g double cream
1 dream topping
50g dessicated coconut

To cover:
A photograph on edible rice paper-optional
500g black Regal Ice(black sugar paste)-I used an already coloured one, as I read in other blogs that if you try to add food colouring to the white icing you should work on it for quite a while to achieve a nice even black colour.....and I didn't had the time for that
250g red Regal Ice (red sugar paste)
White edible paint
Edible glue
Ruler

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the butter and the sugar into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs,vanilla, salt and half of the flour to prevent the mixture from curdling. Add the remaining flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and give it a final mix.

Add the food colouring and mix well. 

Put the mixture in a 20X25cm prepared tin and bake it for 1hr and 15minutes, but check the sponge after an hour. If the skewer inserted into the center comes out clean then it is ready. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes than put it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

My aim was to achieve a real 1to 1 live size model and it is quite handy if you have the real stuff in front of you. I had my husband's D80 as a model which is quite similar to the D90. Actually the cake came out just the right height (approx 8.5cm). I measured the camera then draw the shape on a piece of paper.

I used a food ring for the lens ( my husband sometimes use this to shape rice or veggies like people in the "Master Chef"). The second sponge you need is almost rectangle except on one hand where you need to create a "handle". To visualize this I created a draft below.It may seem that the cake is small, but i wanted a real camera on the plate. The finished cake was anyway bigger as i haven't calculated with the cream and icing layers on the surface.

So my cake only consisted of two main parts limiting the damage during the journey.

I cut the body and the lens sponge to three parts horizontally and filled with the white chocolate cream. I also cut a small additional piece of sponge on top of the body for the flash holder. I mounded with some cream onto the center. 

For the cream

Whip the double cream to stiff peaks, then add the cream cheese, melted white chocolate dessicated coconut and the dream topping and mix again. 

Sandwich together the layers with the cream and put the cake into the fridge for at least 2 hours for the filling to be harden so you can apply the buttercream more easily.

For the buttercream

Cream together the softened butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the cream cheese and mix again.

Spread the buttercream thinly on the surface of the sponges,try to smooth the cream with an offset spatula knife for a nice finish. 

Refrigerate until  set to the touch and then spread the remaining buttercream over the cakes to give a perfect finish.

To cover

Be careful with the sugar paste as it drys out quickly so if you don't use it wrap it in cling film.Make sure your work surface is clean and dry before you kneed the black sugar paste until warm and pliable. Use some icing sugar to dust your work surface and roll out approx. 250g black icing to 3-4mm thickness to cover the camera body. Carefully lift over the centre of the cake and lay onto the butter cream layer. Dust your icing smoother with some icing sugar and rub the icing gently over the cake using your fingers if needed and an icing smoother.Use a sharp knife to trim the edges, cutting always downwards. Save the trimming for other decorations. 

Do the same for the lens with appr 150g black icing.

As we only need a tiny amount of red sugarpaste you can cover the cake board with it and then place the cake body and the lens(laid on its side) on it.

Now.......... you can breathe:) Most of the hard work is done...

Using the rest of your sugarpaste only few buttons and some detailing is left. For the lens roll out some black sugarpaste and cut it to appr.1.5cmX12-15cm(depending on the diameter of your lens). Put the ruler next to it and every half cm press the back of your knife on it, carefully not to cut it through. When you finish place the ruler lengthwise and make 2 "dent" on the sugarpaste...creating the "lens effect". Cut it to the right length and fix it onto the lens with some edible glue. Repeat the process with a slightly smaller sugarpaste piece 1cmX12-15cm, and this time only make one lengthwise "dent".

The rest is down to you. To make my job easier I printed one of your photograph on edible paper and secured it with some edible glue on the camera screen on the back. 

Don't forget the red detail on the front and the Nikon and the D90 mark on the front with the white paint. I made a small rectangle sugarpaste piece and painted on that....so I can practice without ruining the cake. Fix all the buttons with the edible glue on it(just to be on the safe side).

It is really important that once you have finished with the cake, leave it out for at least an hour so the icing can harden properly.

Keep it in the fridge as it contains cream cheese. Lay back and enjoy the view...and the taste later on.