Inside Out & Upside Down

Inside out & Upside down.  Confused yet?  Trust me, you'll understand when you see the pictures.

You've probably seen this cake that Martha Stewart featured:

I adore this cake.  It's so simple yet fun and girly!  It looks pretty easy to make too.  Then I saw this tutorial over at I am Baker.  She has the most incredible cakes & cookies!  I've basically stalked her whole blog and my "To Bake List" is a whole lot longer now.

I figure since Valentine's Day will be here before we know it why not try these techniques out now.  

(I can't believe V-day is so close!  I'm a huge girly girl so V-day is right up my alley, but it makes me SO anxious!!  I always feel like there's so much pressure to do something "lovey-dovey" and romantic.   I'd rather throw a Valentine's Day party with my family & friends than go out to dinner with a million other "lovey -dovey" couples sitting next to me.  Anyone feel the same way? )

( I found it!!  Well, actually I found it back in November but my cousin didn't like it so I didn't buy it.  But after I posted about the hat here I knew I had to have it!) 

 Oh, does the title make sense now?  The heart is inside but upside down.  The inside was intentional...upside down not so much haha!

Want to try?

Here's what you'll need:

•  Two (2-layer) cakes that are different colors (One serves as the "background" the other as the "heart"
• Food coloring  (optional)
• Icing - enough to cover the crumble one cake, layer your cakes, crumb coat, & do the outer layer
• Circle bowl slightly smaller than your "background" cake
• #103 tip
• Cake stand
• A hat that you love (seriously I wore it all through the baking process...it's love baby)

Decide what colors/ flavor you want to be the heart and then plan accordingly.  For example, if you want your heart to be pink then bake a strawberry cake ( or just add food coloring to a lighter colored cake).  It doesn't matter what type of pan you use to bake the heart portion because you're going to crumble it up. The "background" of the cake should be baked in the whatever pan you want your final product to resemble.

The cake that will serve as your "heart" go ahead and break into small pieces and crumble.  Add a some icing to it until its pliable.  If you've made cake balls before this is basically the same technique.  Set this cake aside for now.

Take a circle bowl & lightly press into your "background" cake that way you have a clean outline for your carving.

 Go ahead and place the bottom layer of your "background" cake onto your cake stand.  This is so you won't make the mistake that I did.  I'll explain more later.  For the layer that is on the stand, you're going to want to carve down and form a cone shape.  

For your other layer, you'll want to make the same circular outline, but this time you'll want to carve it so that you basically have a mound in the middle.  You'll want your mound to have a pointed tip that way the top of your heart looks more defined.

I have a feeling I'm confusing you.  Hopefully, these pictures will help.

After you've carved both cakes, start filling in the layers with the crumbled cake.  You'll want to do this bit by bit and be somewhat gentle or else you'll over fill the cake and it might start to bust on one side.  (If it does, it's no biggie.. you'll cover it with icing anyways.)

Now stack the "pointed mound" layer on top of your "cone shape" layer.  When I did this I thought that I had it background and that my cake would be upside down.  Wrong!  The "cone shape" layer should be the base of the cake.

Apply your crumb coat.

The hard part is done!  Now decorate your cake however you want.  I used the #103 tip to get the ruffled look.  I think my icing ( cream cheese) was a bit too runny and so my ruffles fell into one another a bit.  I'll definitely try it with a stiffer icing next time.

And viola!  Here's what you get

(Sorry lighting sucks... I took these pictures around midnight last night.)

And if  you still have no idea how to make this go to I am Baker's tutorial.  I'm sure she can explain it much better than I can!

Now excuse me while I prance around my house with my new hat.