Special Occasion Cakes Recipes - Valentine's Heart Cake

Ingredients

• 20cm square light fruit cake

• 45ml apricot jam, warmed and sieved

• 900g marzipan

• 1.5kg royal icing

• 115g sugar paste icing

• red food coloring

• 25cm square cake board

• 5cm  heart shaped cutter

• 2.5cm heart shaped cutter

• 4 greaseproof paper piping bags

• No 1 and No 2 writing and No 42 star nozzles

• heart-patterned ribbon

---

Method:

1. Brush the cake with the apricot jam. Roll out the marzipan and use to cover the cake. Leave to dry overnight.

2. Secure the cake on the cake board with a little royal icing. Flat-ice the cake with three or four layers of smooth icing. Set aside some royal icing in an airtight container for piping.

3. Tint the sugar-paste icing red. Roll it out and cut 12 hearts with the larger cutter. Stamp out the middles with the smaller cutter. Cut four extra small hearts. Dry on greaseproof paper.

4. Using a No 1 writing nozzle, pipe wavy lines in royal icing around the four small hearts. Leave to dry. Using a fresh bag and a No 42 nozzle, pipe swirls around the top and base of the cake. Color 15ml/1 tbsp of the remaining royal icing red and pipe red dots on top of each white swirl with the No 1 nozzle.

5. Secure the ribbon in place. Using a No 2 writing nozzle, pipe beads down each corner, avoiding the ribbon. Decorate the cake with the hearts, using royal icing to secure them.