The 420 Cake - and How Clueless I Am!

So, a  few years ago when I had a partner, we were commissioned to make a wedding cake and grooms cake for a really awesome couple.  They were looking for a hippie style cake to go with their very Austin/hippie kind of wedding.  What fun!  They were not crazy about fondant, so we made some modifications to a fabulous wedding cake design from Debbie Brown's book (love, love, love her!  btw)....

For the groom's cake, they wanted a VW bus... but no fondant.  They really were adverse to the taste and texture of fondant.  They also wanted the cake to be carrot cake with cream cheese frosting which created an even bigger decorating challenge.  They wanted stickers on the VW that would be indicative of all things "Austin"... they also wanted the license plate on the bus to read "ATX-420"... they snickered a lot and we smiled.  We really just thought it was some kind of private joke between the two of them and it was really cute and sweet.

So... for the VW bus, we knew the best way to make it would be with fondant, but they didn't want that. Soooooo.... we decided to try something off-the-charts crazy.  We created a gumpaste cake "cover" that could be removed from the cake.  Revealing their non-fondant, cream cheese frosting carrot cake underneath.

So... after a LOT of hours and a few failed attempts.... this is what we came up with.

 VW Bus Gumpaste Cake "Cover"

Side View

Front - sorry about the finger in photo but it's the only one I have from the front!

So while we were really happy with the result, the cake underneath now was very plain and kind of boring.  We were trying to think of something simple we could do to decorate the hidden cake underneath... we thought of their request for the license plate and thought "That would be perfect!  We'll put 'ATX-420' on top of the cake!"....

So... when the bride and groom were cutting  their cakes, they lifted the VW Bus cover off the groom's cake and revealed this...

Now... if I had known then, what I know now, I would definitely have taken a better picture of the top of the cake. Or most likely we would not have done this!

It wasn't until after their wedding we learned what "420" meant... If you don't know, I'm not telling you.  You'll have to google that for yourself.  On the upside, the couple was THRILLED with the surprise underneath.... Everyone thought it was hilarious and we could not have been more relieved.

The wedding cake was just as fun and whimsical and it is definitely a wedding I will never forget!  Here are photos of their wedding cakes on display...