To create a dove, place a stencil on top of the cake, and spread softened white icing over it. Then, lift the stencil off the cake.

Valentine’s Day is a natural fit with sweets from the bakery, and decorated cakes make an ideal token of love for your customers to give. The most obvious symbol associated with the holiday is the heart, and design ideas incorporating the symbol are almost endless. A heart cake is perfect for a variety of love-filled designs and adds an interesting shape to a showcase full of the traditional round and quarter sheet cakes. One possible design is an abstract love cake. For step-by-step photos, see page 36.

Full of love
To create a heart character, you will need hearts in several sizes and colors. Begin icing a heart cake with

Create a heart character by using a variety of heart sizes and colors for the body and facial features.

white icing, and lightly airbrush pink around the edges. On top of the cake, place a large heart upside down for the body, and position a medium size heart right side up above it for the head. Use smaller hearts for the ears, arms and legs of the body as well as for the eyes and mouth. Pipe a pink scallop bottom border with tip No. 18. For the top border, stripe a bag with pink icing and fill it with white. Use tip No. 103 to add a scallop top border. Add accents as you wish to finish the design.

A purr-fect design
For a cat cake, turn a single layer heart cake upside down and trim 1 in. of cake off the pointed end. Divide the trimmed piece into thirds; place the two end pieces at the top of the trimmed cake for ears and position the middle piece in the crevice of the heart for a chin. Base ice the cake with white icing. Use a cut paper tube to pipe the facial details, and add sugar flowers. Pace it on a quarter sheet cake and decorate, or offer the cat face as is. This design allows you to use your heart shaped pan year-round. Iced in black, it even makes a purr-fect cake for Halloween.

Say it with cupid

For a cat’s face, trim 1 in. off the pointed end of a heart cake, and divide the piece into thirds. Place the two end pieces at the top of the trimmed edge for ears, and position the middle piece in the crevice of the heart, creating a chin.

For a lattice heart cake, ice the cake with red icing. When using vibrant colors, such as red, apply a thin layer of white buttercream before base icing the cake to keep the color from bleeding into the cake. With a cut paper tube, pipe lines criss-crossing the cake to form lattice. Place sugar flowers in each lattice opening, and add a sugar cupid at the top of the heart. Use star tip No. 18 to pipe a message and the borders.

Hearts aflutter
For a dove cake, base ice a heart cake with pink icing. Position a dove stencil on top of the cake. Spread softened white icing over the stencil, and lift it off the cake. Pipe ribbon swags on the side of the cake with rose tip No. 103, and occasionally accent the ribbon with rose buds. Place a small edible design message on the cake, and add a white vine with a cut paper tube along the top border of the cake. Pipe small roses and leaves along the vine. Add sugar hearts for accent. Add a pink and white ruffle bottom border with tip No. 103 and a white shell top border with tip No. 18.