Leif's hippie van/graffiti birthday party!

This little guy was turning six and was very specific about his birthday cake. He currently has an affinity for street graffiti and Volkswagon buses and deserts. He wanted his cake to look like a Volkswagon camper bus “camping” in the middle of the desert. He loves the desert scenery (I may or may not have influenced that!)!

HIs decorations were pretty simple. It was literally just a giant balloon garland. I bought about four bags of colored balloons from the dollar store. After blowing them alllll up (phew!) I “strung” them onto a heavy duty string. It took about an hour from start to finish but was pretty easy to set up and hang onto existing nails, etc… Transporting, however, was a different matter.

Colorful peace sugar cookies! I iced them with royal icing. While still wet I dipped a toothpick into some food dye and “drew” the peace symbols!

Colorful graffiti popcorn! After popping a couple of cups of homemade, salted popcorn I made a simple syrup of corn syrup, water, and sugar and dropped in food coloring. I made four small separate batches to keep the colors separated then drizzled it onto the popcorn.

(Are we sugared out yet…? )These “blooming flower cupcakes” were a hit with the kids!

Finally, the cake! I baked two nine inch rounds of chocolate cake then a third cake which was simply the remaining batter poured into a small glass bowl which baked in the oven just fine. I made a cream cheese frosting. Once frosted I threw a package of Oreos and a handful of Nilla wafers in the food processor and processed it down to this adorable but extremely delicious cake “sand”! It was a amazing!

I also took all necessary shortcuts and bought the Volkswagon cake topper which is actually just a metal die cast pull back car. It totally doubled as his birthday present that the asked for too!!

I made little green frosting “cactuses” (or Cacti if you’re politically correct) and I just about died on the cuteness on the tiny purple and pink candy flowers!

And finally this “Middle of Nowhere” road sign was my favorite and literally took five minutes to make. I grabbed a long, straight twig out of the yard, cut up tiny pieces of Kraft paper, several colored markers and went to town (no pun intended!).

You couldn’t tell but I think this kid looks pretty happy! (But no honestly, I have no idea what he’s thinking in this picture!!)