Hearts & Roses For My Valentine Cake

Yesterday I thought I’d turn my hand for the first time into making sugarpaste flowers. With Valentines Day looming near I can think of no better flower to make than red roses. Of course I needed a cake to place them on after they’d dried out, so this is how my Hearts & Roses For My Valentine Cake came about. I am sure as time goes by hopefully my skills will improve and become quicker when making sugarpaste flowers. The little hearts were cut out from small heart shaped plunger cutters, which made this task very simple without much effort needed.

If you are looking for a valentine’s cake to bake for your loved one this is a simple but I think stylish Valentine’s cake.

Hearts & Roses For My Valentine Cake

Ingredients
For The Sponge
225g (8 oz) self –raising flour, sieved
225g (8 oz) softened butter
225g (8 oz) caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
For The Filling
Raspberry conserve, enough to sandwich the sponges together
To Stick The Icing To The Cake
1 tbsp apricot jam
3 tbsp water
For The Icing
500g (1lb 2 oz) fondant icing
Edible red food colouring paste – I use sugarflare
A little icing sugar, for rolling out the fondant icing
For The Royal Icing
100g (4 oz) sieved icing sugar
1 egg white
Few drops of lemon juice
Edible red food colouring paste - I use sugarflare

You will also need sugar roses or fresh roses, small heart cutters, a large silicone heart mould, piping bag with a small star tip nozzle, 25.5cm (10 in) cake board.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

In a large mixing bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add and egg one at a time beating well in until all incorporated, add the vanilla extract, milk and beat in. Now add the sieved flour and fold through gently with a large metal spoon until fully mixed through.

You may have to bake the sponge in two batches if you only have one silicone heart mould – like I do. Place half the mixture into the heart mould and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 – 25 minutes or until full baked and feels springy to the touch in the middle. You can also test by inserting a skewer into the middle of the sponge and if it comes out clean its ready. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully and bake and cool the second sponge the same way if you need to.

Take the bottom sponge and spread with raspberry conserve and place the second sponge on top. Place onto the cake board.

In a saucepan on a gentle heat warm the apricot jam and water together, then brush all over the cake.

Sprinkle a work surface with a little icing sugar and roll out the fondant icing large enough to cover the cake. Easy the fondant over the cake and smooth out with your hands and cut off the overhang and save for making the small hearts.

For the royal icing, add the sieved icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice and mix to a stiff piping consistency, add a little more sifted icing if necessary. Fill the piping bag and pipe all around the base edge of the heart. Colour a little icing with edible food colouring and pipe little dots of red icing over the white.

With the remaining fondant icing left aside from cutting off the overhang colour with edible red food colouring. Cut out small fondant hearts and with a little white royal icing stick them in place all around the centre edge of the cake. Place the red roses to one side of the heart on top of the cake and with a little royal icing and a few red fondant heats place around the outside of the flowers.

Note: You could bake this sponge cake in a 20cm (8 in) cake tin but adjust the baking time. Cut the sponge into a heart shape cut through the middle then spread on the raspberry conserve.

I am entering my Hearts & Roses For My Valentine Cake into “A heart For Your Valentine” and to view for “The Round Up” on this [Link}