Jodie's VW Camper Van Birthday cake

I decided to make a cake replica of my friend Jodie's pride and joy - her VW camper van! This was a surprise for her birthday.

Firstly I baked 3 Madeira cakes in loaf tins. I used a Nigella Lawson recipe which you can find here

Then I carved them up into the shape of the camper van - not the easiest part of the process I can tell you!

What a mess lol

The rough shape of the van

Once I got it to the right kind of shape, I then stuck all the bits together and covered the whole thing with butter-cream!

Then I carefully lay my rolled out fondant over the top (after leaving the cake in the fridge for about 30 mins for the butter-cream to harden a little - makes it easier to lay the fondant over and doesn't slip around everywhere. 

Once the cake was covered in white fondant i set about the challenge of putting the detail on.

 I used blue colouring to paint the windows on with a black icing pen to outline everything in. I used silver sugar balls for the wing mirrors, wheels and headlights.

It wasn't at all bad for the first time I had ever done a shaped cake. Jodie loved it too which is the main thing!!!