Happy Sunday! As I mentioned last week, I began working on my Demo Cakes for the upcoming Bridal Faires for this year. I try to present brand new work so a few months ago I cleared out all but 3 of my previous demo cakes and need to replace those with brand new work. Today is the first of many I will create this year to share!

With Valentine's Day so near I know that there are quite a few engagements about to happen. We happen to know two couples who were married on Valentine's Day and with that holiday landing on a Friday next year there are sure to be many Valentine's weddings then as well as the following two years. With that in mind I designed this Valentine's Wedding Cake.

I do adore the statuary that this cake shamelessly copies but I wanted it to feel like a wedding cake. Lots of wedding cakes are designed with the Bride's dress in mind but not too many with the Groom in mind. I've always loved the look of a formal tuxedo with the black tails and slacks, white shirt, tie and cummerbund. The cummerbund is also known as the "crumb catcher" because the pleats face upward and can, indeed, catch any falling crumbs! I have always loved the way this particular detail at the Groom's waist seems to complete the look of the formal tuxedo.

Now here is the quick and easy secret to you being able to make this cake too! Fondant often intimidates people but when you "panel" fondant you are working with it in much smaller strips so it's easier. For this particular look you would cut out 1 inch wide by 10 inches long for the bottom tier and 1 inch wide by 8 inches long for the top tier in white fondant. The bottom strips are actually about 1-1/4 wide so you will need 8 of those strips. The tops of the tiers are all 1 inch strips. Place the first strip at the top of the tier and let the buttercream seal it to the cake. Then, using a clean paint brush you use ONLY for food, paint on a strip of water where you want the next strip to overlap. Now, carefully, place the next strip onto the strip above and smooth it down onto the cake. Repeat till you finish the side and then trim your corners so that they are straight. Once you have completed all four sides then you can "pleat" the top working from the back of the cake to the front. Repeat this with the top tier. I trimmed the top tier with a roll of white fondant so it would adhere the top tier to the bottom one and create a nice clean line. Let this set up for about an hour to set the fondant then add your bow.

The bow is also very easy to do. I rolled out red fondant into 12 inch strips that were 2 inches wide. I then adhered it to the top tier with a bit of water and draped it down the side. I used a fondant tool to "tuck" the end in on the bottom. Then after I had both side ribbons on I began the bow. I rolled out a 9 by 2 inch wide strip and then cut that in half, leaving me with 2 4-1/2 inch wide strips. Then I folded the ends toward the other end to make the loop. I placed these on the cake where I wanted the bow to be at it's widest. This means there was about a 3 inch gap between these first two loops. I repeated this step two more times placing the loops a little closer each time. Finally I took a 4-1/2 inch strip and folded the ends in to the center to make the final loops and placed that into the center of the other loops. A final 1 inch strip crossed this last bow to finish it off. 

The plaque was a bit easier. As I have mentioned, Duff's fondant in red and black is my favorite but it's very very soft. That is the challenge of this type of fondant so you have to move everything very carefully because it stretches. I rolled out the red and used cookie cutters for the letters and heart making sure to keep them fairly thick so they would hold their shape. Then I rolled out the black into a 4x4 square. I then placed the red shapes on top with water to glue them on and then trimmed the black down so it was even on both sides.  Then, very very carefully, I picked the plaque up, using an offset spatula, and turned it over in my hand to paint on a bit of water. This is also a time to be very very careful since the black "bleeds" onto your skin and will most certainly stain your cake. So be very careful placing it on the cake and make sure you don't have any on your fingertips when you go to press it down on to the cake. 

Tomorrow I will be featuring this cake in a Valentine's Day Wedding party plan over at the Cherry Party Blog so I hope you will check back tomorrow and see how beautiful your wedding day could be!

Also don't forget to check in on our Facebook fan site for daily tips and crafts. Right now we are featuring Valentine's Day tips but we will also have Super Bowl tips too in the next two weeks so stop by each day for your tip or craft of the day!

Cat