A Candy Striped Heart Cake

So what happens when your creativity is bursting and you don't really know what to do with it. You end up making a 2 tiered square candy striped fondant cake with royal icing trimming for no occasion in particular. The cake started out just as a 'timepass' on a Saturday afternoon but 2 days later had developed into quite a rewarding project.

Leveling The Cakes

Believe it or not, leveling and shaping the tiers was actually the most complex aspect of the whole cake. It seems simple enough - just bake a couple of square cakes and put them on top of each other. But cakes don't cooperate, invariably one side is taller than the other, the corners are rounded, the sides are marginally lower than the rest of the cake and ultimately we found that shaping each tier into a perfect right angled square was no mean feat.

Fondant, Fondant and more Fondant

Next the two tiers had to be covered with plain white fondant and then striped pieces were added. That was the most fun because suddenly the cake was starting to look nice. The colors were bright and vibrant and the whole candy striped theme taking shape. 

Royal Icing - Not as Easy as it Looks

Royal icing is supposed to be the easiest to make and use but perhaps our recipe was all wrong because it was extremely stiff and we burst a couple of piping bags while trying to apply the rosetted trim. A fresh batch was made using a different recipe and then it was easy peasy! The rosettes on the edge of each tier added the perfect finish as did the heart on the top. A final touch of fondant balls around the heart finished the job and Voila, the cake was ready.

Now we just needed someone to eat it!