Cakes For Romantic Occasions (14 page)

Beautiful Blooms

The soft pink, lilac and green shades of the flowers and foliage give a wonderfully fresh feel to this cake. For a more passionate theme, try using bolder shades.

Creating a flat surface on a cupcake means that you can have fun with colours and intricate design details. These cupcakes are iced in a complementary soft greeny-blue and finished off with little flowers, leaves and sugar pearls to match the main cake.

one
Bake some cupcakes and cover them with buttercream following the instructions on page 31.

two
Mix some white sugarpaste with eucalyptus food colouring to make a soft shade. Ice the cupcakes with a circle of the rolled-out icing.

three
Decorate the tops of the cakes with different arrangements of violets, daisies and leaves as used on the cake (see steps six to nine, pages 54–56). For efficiency, make the extra flowers and leaves you need for the cupcakes at the same time as you make the ones for the main cake.

four
Finish the designs by piping a circle of white sugar pearls around the edge of each cake and some extra sugar pearls around the flowers, then sprinkle with some edible glitter.

Cookie Stack

An elegant stack of butter cookies (see pages 34–35) tied up with matching ribbon makes a perfect take-home treat for your guests. Rather than icing them, just dust them with golden granulated sugar before baking them for a delicious crunchy texture.

I couldn’t resist including this delicious cake. No sugarcraft techniques
are required, but structure and precision play a big part in making this
cake look extra special. The effects of the dusted icing sugar, fresh fruit
and flowers create a very beautiful cake that is just mouth-watering!

SERVES
About 65

MATERIALS

• Two 10cm (4in), two 18cm (7in) and two 25cm (10in) vanilla sponge cakes (see page 13) • One 8cm (3in), one 15cm (6in) and one 22cm (9in) thin cake board • Vanilla buttercream (see page 18) • Raspberry jam

• Fresh strawberries and raspberries,
550g (1lb 3½oz) • 12 fresh red and pink roses

• Icing sugar

EQUIPMENT

• Long sharp knife

• Ruler

• Sugar shaker

• Florists’ tape or posy pick

• 11 plastic dowels

one
Using a long sharp knife, cut each of your sponge cake layers 4cm (1½in) deep and cut each of these in half so you
have four layers of sponge at 2cm (¾in) deep for each tier (
a
).

two
Carefully fill each layer with some vanilla buttercream followed by some raspberry jam, being careful that the jam
does not spill over the sides of the cake (
b
).

three
Place the 10cm (4in) cake onto the 8cm (3in) board, the 18cm (7in) cake onto the 15cm (6in) board and the 25cm (10in) cake onto the 22cm (9in) board.

four
Insert six dowels into the bottom tier, following the instructions for stacking cakes on pages 24–25. Place the middle tier on top of the bottom tier and repeat the process with the top tier using five dowels (
c
).

five
Generously dust the whole cake with icing sugar using
the sugar shaker.

six
When you are ready to serve the cake, place it on a cake stand or plate and decorate it with the fresh fruit and flowers
as shown (see also pages 28–29).

Fruity Flavour

I’ve chosen vanilla buttercream with raspberry jam, but you could use strawberry or cherry jam, or even lemon curd. They will all taste delicious.

When I found these delightful little heart-shaped tins, I instantly thought they would work perfectly as mini dusted jam and cream sponges. Sweet, simple and delicious!

one
Bake some heart-shaped mini cakes with a vanilla sponge recipe (see pages 13 and 33).

two
Cut each cake in half and fill with vanilla buttercream (see page 18) and raspberry jam.

three
Dust generously with icing sugar using a sugar shaker.

Jammy Dodgers

You’ve got to love these! Roll out some butter cookie dough then cut out two circles for each cookie. Cut a small heart out of one of the circles and spoon jam onto the other. Place the circle with the cut-out heart on top of the jam and bake (see pages 34–35 for cookie recipe).