Eat your heart out

Literally.

I've been working on a little somethin'-somethin' for the great Valentine's Day, and I just want to share my efforts. Of course, the inspiration came from Bakerella and Hello, Cupcake. I kind of combined the two ideas into one mighty dessert.

Here's what I did.

Mix up your favorite cake batter. I chose a fudge cake and made 1.5 recipes so that I would be able to fill my cake pan and the mini cupcake pan.



See this? You can lick that. It's ok. I won't tell.



Pour your batter into a greased heart-shaped pan (about 1/2 full).



Spoon the remainder into mini cupcake papers.



And then bake, according to the recipe directions.



Cool on a wire rack.

Then use a leveller to even out the heart-shaped cake.



Spread top and sides of cake with your favorite frosting, as smooth as you can. I'm using a chocolate buttercream. Let the cake sit until the frosting hardens.



Spread a clean counter with confectioners' sugar. Get your red coloring ready. We're going to have some fun.



Cover your hands and surface of the fondant with the powdered sugar and get to work kneading.



Add the red coloring as needed.



Divide the fondant into three parts. Two are going to be for the top and bottom of the cake. The third will be to wrap around the sides.

Use the heart cake pan to cut out the shape for the top of cake (use the smaller side).



Smooth the fondant on to the top of the cake.



Use the larger part of the pan to cut out the fondant for the bottom of the cake. It should be just slightly larger than the cake itself.



Like so.



Slide the cake on to the bottom piece of fondant and make sure it's even all the way around.



Next, measure the cake pan all the way around so you can roll out the third piece of fondant long enough to cover the sides of the cake. You want it wide enough so that it sticks up over the top of the cake, too. I cut mine to about 2.5" high.



Then smooth it all around so that you essentially have a box-shaped cake. Pretty, right?



Let the cake sit and go back for those mini cupcakes. Remember them?

Set up a decorating station, with some plates of sprinkles and pareils, conversation hearts, chocolate hearts, and icing writers.

Put the remaining chocolate buttercream in the microwave and heat it up, 8 seconds at the time, until it is smooth and like the consistency of honey.



Then you're going to take each cupcake...



Dip it in the melted frosting, turning to cover completely...



Lift and swirl.



And then dip in your sprinkles. Voila.



Decorate in all different ways. It's up to you and your creativity.



Then arrange the mini cupcakes in the cake "box."



I didn't have enough, so I added some foil-wrapped hearts in cupcake papers to fill in the gaps.



I'm not complaining.



Happy Valentine's Day!



Bakerella