A LOVE -ly Cake for Valentines Day

Valentine's Day is coming!

I have always loved Valentine's Day because it breaks up the winter doldrums and it gives me an excuse to eat a ridiculous amount of chocolate.

Sometimes, the men in this house forget Valentine's Day, this year that isn't going to happen.

I decided to make a new display cake, just as a little reminder of the big day .

This cake can be made with the basics, no fancy flower cutters or tools. 

What you will need that you may not have is a food grade stencil similar to these.

I used a Damask stencil, you can use anything you like.

All you need is a stencil, a set of round biscuit cutters, a ball tool, and a foam pad.

I stenciled my cake first. You can stencil on either buttercream, or fondant.
 I prefer fondant. 

You will need some thinned buttercream in the color you want your design to be.
I chose pink.

Secure your stencil to your cake with sterile hat pins. You will want your stencil to be taught against the side of your cake. ( I used tape in this video only because it's a dummy cake).

With a spatula or knife smooth the thinned buttercream over your stencil.

Wipe your tool clean and scrape off the excess buttercream.

Remove pins and very gently lift stencil off of your cake. 

Cake stenciling takes a little practice so I recommend trying this on a test cake until you are comfortable .

I apologize for any background noise, someday I will figure out how to add music...for now it's rambunctious 3 year old noise.

Isn't she lovely?

Once you have your stencil around your cake it's time to make a flower.

This is all you will need to make a very simple rose:

Mix the ball of white gumpaste into your fondant until smooth and blended and roll out to 1/8 inch thick.
Use each of the round cutters and cut 7 circles of each size.

With your ball tool, frill the edge of the circles.

Once you have them frilled link them all together with a dab of water on the back, smallest to largest.

Ready for the easiest rose ever? 

Roll up your circles, starting at the small end.

I decided to accent my cake with some black , double sided , satin ribbon. When using a ribbon on a cake I attach a thin strip of wax paper to the back to prevent it from picking up any grease stains from the buttercream.

I used the black ribbon as my bottom border and also as an accent bow on the top of the cake. 

I made one of my messy loop bows by just bunching up the ribbon and setting the flower on it to anchor the middle to the cake.

You could stop here, or keep going for a base tier. Seeing as I am trying to drive a hint home, I added a tier.

Again, no fancy tools, just the ones we have already used.

I decided to do a base tier of pink ruffles.  Similar to the way I made my Ombre ruffle cake, only easier.

I rolled out a sheet of pink fondant to 1/8 of an inch thickness. 

Cut that in 1 inch strips.

I dampen the sides of my cake with water to attach the strips to the sides.

Frill the top of your strips with the ball tool just as you did for the rose petals.

Start at the top, with the frill on the top, wrap around your cake. 

Repeat until you reach the bottom.

Use 4 dowels for support, insert into your base cake and set your top cake in place.

I made a little gum paste disc  and used my letter cutters to cut out " LOVE " , just in case I needed to spell it out to my guys .

Even if you are new to cake decorating give this one a try. 

It doesn't require any expensive tools or advanced skills. It can be made with only basic materials.

Fun to make and a chance to WOW your Valentine!

P.S. Brandon, if you are reading this and have no idea what I'd like for Valentines Day I'm going to make it easy for you this year...I want this!

It drives me crazy having to constantly scrape the bowl while I'm whipping up buttercream.    It's a beater, with a bowl scraper all in one. GENIUS!!