When I think of Valentine’s Day cakes, this is what pops into my mind: shades of pink and red, lots of hearts and romantic flowers.
Even though I like those ideas, I wanted to make something different and exciting this year. So, for this Valentine’s Day cake, I went with a purple and green theme (since purple is so popular these days) and I used a heart shaped cutter to make cute fantasy flowers.
These flowers may look challenging but honestly, they are VERY easy to make 🙂
This is what I used:
Purple fondant or gumpaste or 50/50 (I prefer using 50/50)
Green fondant or gumpaste or 50/50 (I prefer using 50/50)
Medium and large circle cookie cutters (from Wilton’s Circle cutter set)
Small heart shaped cookie cutter (from Wilton’s heart cutter set)
Water and paintbrush
Shortening
Cornstarch or powdered sugar for dusting your work area
Wax paper
Gum paste glue (to stick the final flowers onto your cake)
2 small flower forming cups (I use the Wilton brand)
2 medium flower forming cups (I use the Wilton brand)
Step 1:
Cover your work area with cornstarch or powdered sugar and roll out your fondant or gum paste or 50/50 (whichever you decide to use). A thickness of about 1mm is decent.
Use your circle cutters to cut out a medium circle and a large circle. Place them on a sheet of wax paper.
Step 2:
Use the heart cutter to cut out many small heart pieces.
Step 3:
Brush very little water on top of your circles. Then, start sticking all those little hearts. Make sure to stick them on the edges first and then work your way inwards.
Step 4:
Once the circle’s outer edge is covered in hearts, work your way inwards and stick more hearts.
Your medium circle should be fully covered in hearts by this point but the large circle still needs more hearts…
Step 5:
Stick a few more hearts near the center of your large circle until it’s entirely covered in these “petal-like” hearts.
Step 6:
Rub your flower forming cups with some shortening. Then, carefully move your flowers from the wax paper and place them on the cups. The big flower goes on top of the big cup and the small flower goes on top of the small cup.
Now, use green fondant or gumpaste to make 2 small balls. Brush very little water in the center of the flowers and stick these balls.
Let these flowers dry for about 2 days (drying time may vary depending on where you live) and then stick them on to your cake using some gumpaste glue. And… you are done! 😀
I hope you will make someone a lovely cake with these flowers on Valentine’s Day.
Happy Caking!
Abeer
Abeer, Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge & beautiful creations. I’ve been inspired by all of your work.
Abeer, thanks so much for your helpful hints on my making our grandson’s dragon cake. I’ll do some experimenting making my own marshmallow fondant. He wants me to make a fierce fire eating dragon so I have my work cut out for me! Thanks again!
love the bold colors. Thanks 4 your creativity
The colours you combined are lovely. Very unusual. The entire idea is ingenious. You make cake decorating real fun. Thanks for sharing. Of course im making this right away!
What a lovely idea. When you indicated that you use 50/50 gum paste & fondant does that mean that you knead them together? Do you have any favorite brands? I am new to this method so need all the advice I can get! Thanks,
@ Patricia… You can use whichever you like among these three: fondant, gumpaste or 50/50. I like using 50/50 because it dries fast but not TOO fast. 50/50 simply means you take equal amounts of fondant and gumpaste and mix them together. I use Marshmallow fondant and Wilton’s gumpaste to make 50/50. Hope this helps 🙂
I am starting to think about making my “soon to be 6 year old” grandson’s birthday. He wants me to make a dragon on his cake and was imphatic to let me know he wants the dragon standing up and not laying down. I was thinking about molding one out of gum paste. Do you suggest 50/50? And, also if you could tell me what Marshmallow fondant it I would really appreciate it. My grandson thinks I can do anything so I really have to come up with something fantastic! Thanks for your help as always.
@ Patricia… That sounds like a fun cake. I would actually suggest using rice krispie treats to mold the dragon’s body and then cover it in fondant or even 50/50. I would not recommend using gumpaste coz it may start drying before you even complete making your dragon. Trust me…gum paste dries really fast!
Marshmallow fondant is made with marshmallows and sugar. I think it tastes much better than regular, store bought fondant and it’s cheaper too. I have an easy recipe on my blog. You can check that out. Louise also has a recipe here on Cakejournal. Both of our recipes are very similar.
Good luck 😀
Great tutorial, very non cliche Valentines cake. I love it!
What a cute idea! thanks for sharing.
Fabulous and so clever Abeer! xx
This is lovely! With your tutorial, it’s easy to make which is great. Thanks for sharing.
I also love the colour combination.
This is so beautiful. I can see using it for a wedding cake in pastels. Do you think this would work in candy clay?
@ Roseanna… I am pretty sure you can make these flowers with candy clay too. However, candy clay is heavier than fondant or gumpaste. So, I think that might make it harder to stick the flowers onto the cake. But, please feel free to share your experience if you try making these flowers with candy clay 🙂
Great tutorial Abeer and nice to see you here! Love the idea of using hearts to make a flower!