Jeep Wrangler Birthday Cake

Jump to recipe

Click here to sign up for the Zoale blog today!

My 5 year old’s birthday theme this year was black Jeep Wranglers.  He just adores Jeep Wranglers and gets so excited every time he sees one.  Up until about 6 months ago, he would call them Jeefs, which was just too adorable for words.  Anyway, it made sense that he would want to celebrate his love for black Jeeps or “Jeefs” at his birthday party.

He helped me pick out the Jeep design and gave me suggestions on the cake layout, like, “Mom, can I have a cactus on the cake?”  We decided to have the Jeep driving away from the sun and the desert….how else could we incorporate a cactus with a Jeep :).  It is so much fun involving my kids in their cake designs, and it gives them the opportunity to be super creative and end up with something truly unique.  I have only been decorating cakes since my kids came along, so I get pretty intimidated every time I go to decorate one of their cakes.  The requests seem to be getting more complicated as they get older.  I enjoy rolling up my sleeves and seeing if I can do it.  The cake may not be perfect, but it is exactly what Alex wanted, and that just thrills me.  What a great experience and I learn a little more about cake decorating each time.  I hope they look back on this with fond memories , like I do when I think of all the beautiful cakes my mom made me.

I hope you enjoy the cake and I have included some directions below.

Jeep Cake3

The cake is a homemade yellow butter cake.  I doubled the recipe and made a few cupcakes with the leftover batter.  The icing is also homemade, and it is a buttercream made with real butter.  This type of buttercream is more difficult and temperamental to work with than the vegetable shortening variety, but is so much better.  A sheet cake takes a bunch of icing (see the recipe at the bottom of the post).

When frosting a cake, frost the top first and then the sides.  Place a large amount of icing on top of the cake (you can remove excess later), to prevent crumbs from mixing with your icing.  After icing the top and sides, smooth out with a cake spatula and then place the cake under a stove fan and light for about 20 minutes to slightly harden the icing.  Smooth the cake by using parchment paper or a smooth paper towel, and lightly smooth a little at a time.  After that, the cake is ready to decorate.

I used a spray color on the cake, in order to give it the appearance of a painting (yellow for the sun, blue for the sky, and gold and black for the desert ground).

jeep cake collage

The decorations are made out of fondant and gum paste.

  • The Jeep and letters are a mixture of gum paste and fondant, which I colored black and left some white.  I rolled out the black gum paste/fondant, and used a sharp tool to draw out the Jeep by hand.  Then I rolled out a piece of the white mixture, and placed it underneath to provide more of a 3D effect.  I used fondant tools to finish cutting out the Jeep, by hand.  After that, I used black and silver color dust to finish off the Jeep.  I cut out the letters with fondant cutters.
  • I made the cactus plants out of green fondant (colored with green food color), by rolling out the fondant and cutting the shapes by hand, and then painted them with green color dust.  I made the rocks out of white gum paste and formed them by hand, and then painted them with brown and silver color dust.
  • I used a gum paste glue to adhere the decorations to each other and the cake (made with water and gum paste).

I will share more cakes that I have decorated and ideas for your next birthday party soon.  I would love to hear from you.  Let me know if you have any feedback or questions 🙂

14 Responses to“Jeep Wrangler Birthday Cake”

  1. 05/28/2015 at 2:29 pm #

    You did such an amazing job, Antonia! The cake looks fantastic and I bet your little one was very happy camper! I wish I was that good when it comes to children treats! 😉

    • Zoale.com
      05/28/2015 at 6:24 pm #

      Thank you for the kind compliments Francesca! You are very sweet! He was very happy and when it was time to eat the cake…..he just had to have the piece with his name in the windshield. I didn’t mind making the first cut in the middle of the cake 🙂

  2. Sandhya
    05/28/2015 at 3:31 pm #

    OMG Antonia! What a fabulous cake! Your 5 year old must be thrilled! Happy Birthday to him!

    • Zoale.com
      05/28/2015 at 6:26 pm #

      Aww, thank you Sandhya! Yes, he was so happy and I was so impressed he didn’t touch it until we cut it 🙂 Thank you for the birthday wishes! I can’t believe he is 5!

  3. 05/28/2015 at 10:23 pm #

    Absolutely incredible cake!!! It is so perfectly detailed and it shows how much love you put into it…Your son must have been thrilled! I’m really impressed with this cake and your creativity!
    I like the utensil holder in the toy Jeep too!
    PS: “Jeef” is adorable! Too cute!

    • Zoale.com
      05/28/2015 at 10:38 pm #

      Thank you so much Lia! That is really sweet of you to say…there was a lot of love put into it. He was really happy and had so much fun helping design the cake. Thank you for all of your kind words 🙂 “Jeef” is so cute that I was a little sad when he started saying it correctly 😉

      • 05/28/2015 at 10:43 pm #

        I can imagine he was thrilled to have his Jeep come to life in his cake!
        Yes, it’s sad when kids don’t pronounce cute words anymore! My niece would call strawberries – “staggeggies” and it was adorable…we videotaped her saying it!
        Take care and wishing you a great start to the (almost) weekend!

      • Zoale.com
        05/29/2015 at 8:54 am #

        He really was! I love it…staggeggies 🙂 I am glad you all have it on tape…what a memory! I hope you have a nice weekend too!

  4. 05/29/2015 at 7:14 am #

    That is sooooo impressive! What an amazing birthday cake. Happy days 😉

    • Zoale.com
      05/29/2015 at 8:57 am #

      Thank you for the compliments Nina! I was thrilled it came together 🙂 Yes, happy days!

  5. 05/29/2015 at 7:30 am #

    Wow cake looks amazing.. I m sure little one would have loved it..

    • Zoale.com
      05/29/2015 at 8:59 am #

      He had the biggest smile on his face 😀 Thank you for the sweet words Vidya!

  6. 05/29/2015 at 9:29 pm #

    This is so cool! My boyfriend just bought a Jeep Wrangler and we LOVE it! What a fun cake idea 🙂

    • Zoale.com
      05/29/2015 at 9:42 pm #

      Thanks Alyssa! Jeeps are awesome, and I love that my son is so into them 🙂 So happy you could stop by!

Leave a Reply to LifestyleswithLiaCancel reply

Proudly powered by WordPress   Premium Style Theme by www.gopiplus.com