Me: “What kind of cupcakes would you like for your birthday?”

Husband: “Volkswagen.”

Me:    : /

That’s my man.  A total Volkswagen lover.  He’s owned many models over the years and, before I came along, it was his one true love.

I should have seen it coming.

There was nothing better to him than his perfectly polished car.  When we got together he said he finally had a reason to leave the garage.  (Awwww, so sweet.) Guess he just needed to find some way to bring his other passion into the house with him.

Well, 5 years later…having escaped making Volkswagen cupcakes somehow all that time. . .

Me: “Here they are!  Happy Birthday Honey!”

I don’t know what it was that scared me into such a delay.  Volkswagen cupcakes?!  I had never had such a request.  I’ve made cupcakes of all kinds for any type of occasion.  Making and decorating them is my passion and always brings me happiness.  When I make them for others they usually have general guidelines for a certain color or theme.  Such as black and white for a bridal shower, or princess for a birthday party.  So when my man decided to throw me a curve ball request for Volkswagen cupcakes I was stunned.

Why was this request so intimidating?  Volkswagen.  That’s why.  What on earth did that even mean?  A car on the cupcake?  One that looked like his car?  His precious car.  The precision and adoration he had for his car and all things Volkswagen was inspiring, but made me cringe.  He knows and loves their cars like any other crazed VW lover on this planet.  The matter of specificity to which they know these cars is impressive.  And that’s where the problem was after all.  It had to be perfect.  It had to be precise.  Whatever a Volkswagen cupcake was to be, it had to be perfect.

At the time I was not up for the task.  I was not confident enough with my skills or creativity to pull it off.  He would love anything of course, but this was something I just couldn’t do easily.  It had to wait.  And wait it did.  For 5 years.

Finally, 5 years and 3 different Volkswagens later, I came across this cookie cutter.  That was it.  The logo was all it had to be.  I had been so focused on making a specific car or cars.  It did not need to be that complicated.  Of course the years passing and owning 3 different Volkswagen models helped me realize this as well.  He just loves Volkswagen.  The logo was all I needed to merge our two passions together and (finally) make him the Volkswagen cupcakes he asked for.

The fondant I used was store bought black fondant by Sweetshop found at Michaels.  The variety of colors and pliability of this brand is amazing.  I do like making my own fondant, but when it comes to colors, store-bought is easier in my opinion and for my cupcake making purposes.  I rolled out the fondant and used the Volkswagen cookie cutter.  I let them dry out for a few hours to firm up a bit.  Then I used a food safe paint brush and metallic food paint I found from Rainbow Dust to paint the chrome portions of the logo to bring it to life.

Everything came together at last to deliver Volkswagen cupcakes.  My husband was soon to have his dream of Volkswagen cupcakes realized!  The metallic food paint was so easy to use I can’t rave about it enough.  It is thick, goes on smoothly and covers fairly well.  I found through trial and error that it’s best to let coats dry completely for at least an hour.  It took 2 coats to reach the result above.  The sides I neglected a bit and that was my fault, but a lesson learned for next time.  Metallic food paint is a welcome new tool in my cupcake making cabinet!

A Very Wonderful ( VW…get it?  ha ha) birthday was had.  My VW crazed husband was happy to finally have his dream cupcake made by me.  I was glad it finally all came together and was way simpler than I ever thought all the years past.  All I had to do was Just Be Slower and let the time come.

As Volkswagen commercials would say, dasauto.  Fahrvergnugen, drive happy.

What is your dream cupcake decoration?  Are there any car fans in your life that may want a similar cupcake?

For more fondant tips and tricks see my other blog Two Fun and Simple Ways to Use Fondant.

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