Touring the British countryside with a caravan in tow continues to be a popular holiday pursuit. This caravan has a colourful twist with a retro red colour scheme and fun accessories – perfect for a picnic in the summer sun!
Follow cake baking extraordinaire Fiona Brook's instructions below and don't forget to download the template at the bottom of the page.
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Happy baking! Let us know how it goes by emailing [email protected]...
What you'll need: Consumables
Square cake 1x 25cm (10in) approx depth 7.5cm (3in)
Jam and buttercream or alternative filling to fill cake
Ganache or buttercream to crumb coat
Square cake card cut to approx. 19 x 7.5cm (7.5 x 4in)
Square cake drum 30cm (12in)
Red satin ribbon 1.5cm depth and approx. 1.25m (49in) in length
Light green sugarpaste 600g (1lb 5oz) (knead Renshaw white together with Renshaw Lincoln green)
White sugarpaste 700g (1lb 9oz) (Renshaw)
Poppy red sugarpaste 400g (14oz) (Renshaw)
Black sugarpaste 115g (4oz) (Renshaw)
Grey modelling paste 50g (2oz)
White modelling paste 75g (3oz)
Red modelling paste 50g (2oz)
Tiny amounts of pink and pale green modelling pastes
Caramel brown modelling paste 40g (1.5oz)
Pastillage 100g (4oz) made up according to packet instructions and tinted pale brown (Squires Kitchen)
Printed sugar sheets in polka dot and gingham patterns (Culpitt)
Small amount of vodka or other white alcohol for painting
Edible lustre dust antique silver (Sugarflair)
Pieces of raw spaghetti
CMC or tylo powder
Small amount of royal icing to adhere the cake to the board
Edible glue
Confectioners glaze (optional)
Non-toxic glue stick or double sided tape to stick ribbon to cake drum
What you'll need: Tools
Caravan template (see below) traced on to greaseproof paper and cut out
Large sharp knife for cake carving
Small kitchen knife
Large rolling pin
Small celpin / rolling pin
2x cake smoothers
New kitchen scourer (optional)
Cutting wheel tool or pizza wheel
Small scissors
Straight frill cutter set 1-4, No.2 (FMM)
Multi-ribbon cutter tool (FMM)
Fine strip cutter tool No. 1 (JEM)
3D deckchair cutter (JEM)
Circle cutters 2.5cm, 3cm and 4cm
Small craft knife
Small palette knife
Small paintbrushes for glue and detail
Medium sized flat paintbrush
NOTE: Use a cake recipe firm enough to be suitable for carving – madeira or a dense chocolate cake works well.
Cakes containing fruit and/or nut pieces are more difficult to carve.
Preparation
Split and fill the cake as desired in the usual way. Halve the cake lengthways into two 12.5cm x 25cm rectangles.
Stack the two rectangles to give a shape 25cm long x 12.5cm wide x 15cm tall, adding another layer of filling. Mount on to the cut cake card which will be slightly smaller than the cake base to allow for the removal of a section underneath.
Cover the cake drum in pale green paste, reserving 50g for Step 8. Texture the paste with a clean scourer if desired. Trim drum with ribbon and allow to dry.
STEP 1
Use the template provided against the side of the cake to cut the basic shape with a sharp knife. For the wheel and base areas shown on the template, only remove a section about 1cm deep on each side to give the illusion of space under the caravan.
TIP: It may be easier to lie the cake on its side while carving.
STEP 2
Roll 75g black sugarpaste into a long thin sausage. Cut 2cm strips of this black paste and use to cover the hollowed out section at the base of the caravan, sticking with buttercream. Crumb coat the rest of the cake with buttercream or ganache.
STEP 3
Roll out red sugarpaste into a strip to fit the depth of the lower half of the caravan.
Apply to the cake sides, smoothing the bottom edge into the hollowed section underneath.
Use a cutting wheel to trim a straight line across the widest part of the caravan.
STEP 4
Roll out the white sugarpaste and place over the top of the caravan cake.
Use hands and a smoother to guide the paste over caravan contours.
Cut away the excess where the white paste meets the red section.
Smooth the join to neaten.
STEP 5
While the white paste is still soft, use a cutting wheel tool to mark outlines of the caravan’s door and windows – use the template as a guide. Set cake aside for the paste to firm up overnight. Have a cuppa to celebrate your success so far. The next bit gets tricky...
STEP 6 – Deckchair frame
Roll the pastillage quite thinly and use the two side pieces of the deckchair cutter to emboss the frame shapes. Cut around the shape with a craft knife. Roll 4x 4cm long thin rods of pastillage. Leave pieces to dry thoroughly.
TIPS
• Embossing the deckchair frame shapes and then cutting out with a craft knife is an easier method than trying to extract the paste from the narrow cutter.
• The deckchair frames can be quite fragile if rolled too thinly. It is advisable to make spares of each side piece in case of breakage on assembly.
• Flower paste or modelling paste may be used instead of pastillage to make the deckchair frame, although the results may be more brittle.
STEP 7
Add CMC to the remaining black sugarpaste. Cut 2x 4cm wheels for the sides. To make the front wheel, squash a ball of paste into a thick 3cm round. Emboss hubcaps with a smaller circle cutter and paint with silver lustre dust diluted with vodka. Feel free to pour yourself a responsible shot, too. Go on. Nobody's watching.
STEP 8
Roll out a long narrow piece of the reserved green sugarpaste. Cut a 1.5cm wide strip using the frill cutter on one edge and a cutting wheel to straighten the other edge. Stick this grass border to the black paste underneath the caravan.
STEP 9
To make the towbar, cut a 2cm x 5cm tapered oblong of red and white modelling pastes rolled to 1cm deep. Stick the white on top of the red with edible glue. Bevel the wider end so that it will fit against the sloped front of the caravan.
STEP 10
Push a 4cm length of raw spaghetti vertically through the end of the tow bar and into the top of the small wheel to secure. Add a second, shorter piece of spaghetti behind the first. Stick a tiny blob of black paste to the ends. Paint the exposed spaghetti in silver.
STEP 11
Roll the grey modelling paste out thinly, then use the multi-ribbon cutter to cut a long 1cm wide strip to cover the central join between red and white around the caravan body.
Use the same paste and tool to cut 2x 5mm strips for parallel stripes on the caravan roof.
STEP 12
Using smoothers, shape 5g of white paste into a square skylight; glue in position on the roof. Roll a tiny sausage of black paste and add as the door handle. Squash two pea-sized pieces of red paste into reflectors to add to the grey strip on the caravan’s rear.
STEP 13
Thinly roll white modelling paste. Cut two 6cm x 1cm strips and glue into the upper hollows of each wheel arch. Stick the wheels in position. Use the strip cutter to cut multiple 3mm strips to outline the front and rear faces of the caravan.
STEP 14
Dilute antique silver lustre dust with vodka and use a wide flat brush to paint in the windows. If desired, overpaint these when dry with confectioners glaze to give a shiny window effect. Time for another little drinky? Perhaps. Get the coke for this one.
STEP 15
Roll out the remaining grey paste and use the strip cutter or multi-ribbon cutter on the narrowest setting to cut narrow strips of paste to outline the door and windows. Glue into position with edible glue and paint silver.
STEP 16
Cut two more ribbons of white paste with the strip cutter to make bunting cord. Stick this to the front and side windows. Use small scissors to cut tiny triangles from patterned sugar sheets. Glue to the windows under the cord.
STEP 17 – Caravan steps
Use two smoothers to shape two 4cm x 2cm oblong blocks of white modelling paste. Stick one on offset on top of the other with edible glue to create the stepped shape.
STEP 18 – Deckchair
Remember the frame pieces from earlier? Now they've drive, take them and use edible glue, or a paste made from the pastillage mashed down with water, to stick the four rods into position between the side pieces. Leave to set, supporting with foam to keep in shape. Next up is the canvas for the chairs.
STEP 19
Use the rectangular cutter from the deckchair cutter set to cut the deckchair canvas from a patterned sugar sheet, wafer paper, or modelling paste. Use edible glue to carefully stick the canvas to the frame. If you've got time to kill, you could always construct an extra sign saying "DO NOT SIT." Just in case.
STEP 20 – Picnic hamper
Form 30g of the caramel modelling paste into a box shape.
Use a knife to make criss-cross texture patterns all over, as well as marking around the top edge and across the top to represent the lids.
Roll two thin sausages for handles, sticking with edible glue.
It won't be long before you have a pic-a-nic basket that Yogi Bear would want to get his hands on.
STEP 21 – Vacuum flask and cup
Roll a pea-sized piece of red paste into a cylinder. Hollow out a cup shape using a celpin.
Add a sausage of paste for the handle. Roll a larger red paste cylinder for the flask, adding a blob of black paste for the lid.
STEP 22 – Picnic food
Cut small discs of red modelling paste using a 3cm circle cutter. Emboss plate rims with the 2.5cm cutter. Make sandwiches from tiny squares of white modelling paste filled with pink and green squares of coloured pastes, cut into triangles and stick to the plates.
STEP 23 – Retro radio
Form a 3cm x 2cm block from red modelling paste, poke two small holes in the top.
Roll a sausage of paste for the handle and glue it into the holes.
Add a circle of caramel paste as a dial and tiny balls of black paste for knobs.
STEP 24
Carefully lift the caravan into position on the drum, securing with royal icing under the base. Glue the dried towbar and steps into position against the caravan. Create the picnic scene using a piece of the gingham sugar sheet as the rug and glue accessories in place.
STEP 25 – EAT THE CAKE!
Remember: Always inform the recipient of the presence of any spaghetti supports in cakes.
Click below to download the caravan template...
