Pretty Pastels: Pom Pom Cake DIY

Man I'm getting some pretty sweet use out of my heart shaped cake pan. The thing is on FIRE with inspiring me for cakey fun ideas! Guys, I know Val-day is totally over but hearts are FOREVER.

This sweet pastel number I made for the adorable little 6 year old Ava on her birthday! It was such a cute cake idea I decided to turn it into a pretty DIY for you all. You'll need a heart shaped cake pan, your favourite cake recipe and three piping bags fitted with a Wilton 4B tip and buttercream tinted in three pastel colours. I just went wild with no rhyme or reason with my buttercream drop star piping - pink here, purple here, blue here... you can always be more disciplined than that... but I like the playful randomness of it!

Happy birthday, Ava - thank you Rose for the lovely order! And happy decorating, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay 

Sussudio: 1980s Satin Ruffle Pillow Inspired Valentine's Day Heart Cake!

My inspiration for this cake was a 1980s satin pillow with ruffle trim - did I succeed?? Haha... well I think it looks pretty 80's and it turned out pretty cute and ruffly! File this wild cake under: Why Not. 

1980s Satin Pillow Ruffle Heart Cake

You Will Need:

A heart shaped cake pan

Your favourite recipe for a 2 layer cake

4 cups of vanilla buttercream or frosting

Gel food colouring in fuchsia and purple

Three piping bags fitted with an open star tip - or you can re-use the same one!

An offset spatula 

Baking Tip: Grease and flour your heart shaped cake pan before pouring your batter in. I also cut a piece of parchment paper to size which helps immensely with cake release. 

Make it!

1. Bake your cake according to recipe instructions. Let cool completely.
2. Run an offset spatula around the edges of the cake pan to loosen the cake. Remove the cake from cake pan and place on a large cake plate or cake board.
3. Mix your buttercream colours - divide your buttercream in thirds, keeping one cream coloured and making one third pink and one third purple.
4. Frost the entire exterior of the cake with pink buttercream.
5. Fill each piping bag with a different colour.
6. Pipe the sides of the heart cake with cream coloured buttercream.
7. Pipe the top of the cake with pink buttercream, doing three rows of drop stars.
8. Fill the rest of the cake with the purple buttercream to make a purple heart center!

Cut a slice for your sweetie and enjoy! May as well throw on some Phil Collins No Jacket Required while you're at it.

See ya soon, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay 

Eeks! Pink Heart Mouse Cake + Spell Your Cupcakes Love

I think my brain is programmed to see shapes as potential animal face cakes. I guess animal face cakes are kind of my delightful little cakey obsession. Not a terrible thing to be obsessed with - better than crystal meth or eating slugs, right? So when I finally bought myself one of those heart shaped cake pans in preparation for some Valentines heart-caked DIY insanity, I immediately saw two giant mouse ears and BLAMMO this kind of adorable pink heart mouse cake came to mind. Check out the whole squeaky clean DIY over at Handmade Charlotte!  

Feeling too absurdly lazy to want to procure a heart shaped cake pan and do all of that jazzy mousey piping? Here's a super simple heart-day idea: spell out some cute and non creepy greeting with delicious little mini cupcakes. If the apple of your eye doesn't think this is the cutest display of niceness and let's-get-to-know-each-other romance ever, then you should run the other way because only crazy people don't like cake! Also: old marrieds like myself can get a little jolt of romance from this kind of thing too. Everyone wins!

Ideas of things you can spell with mini cupcakes: 

1. YOU'RE MY LADY
2. HOPE YOU LIKE MINI CUPCAKES
3. HOW COOL AM I THAT I MADE YOU THIS NICE TREAT? LET'S GO OUT
4. YOU'RE ATTRACTIVE TO ME
5. HELLO, KITTY!
6. RAOWR! (this is if you're feeling extra feisty)
7. HI
8. LOVE YOU TO THE CORNER STORE AND BACK x INFINITY 
9. WE'VE BEEN MARRIED FOR 14 YEARS BUT YOU'RE STILL CUTE, BALD AND ALL
10. MON PETIT CHERI 

I chose "hi" because it's pleasantly innocuous and it let's the ruffly minis do the talking, ya know? But feel free to go wild. 

xo Lyndsay 

Pink + Purple Ruffle Heart Cake

Have you ever had your heart broken? It really does make your chest hurt. Physiologically it's probably shock, stress, anxiety and subsequent acid reflux - heart burn! Or maybe it really is just that horrible pain of having your heart figuratively ripped out. And falling in love gives you that giddy flutter, of a gaggle of butterflies flittering around in your stomach - excitement, hope, and that deep longing for that other person! The feeling that everything is good in the world, and love is real. I think that must be where the world started in co-opting the heart as the official symbol of love.

Speaking of hearts - I really liked how this ruffly buttercream two tone pink and purple heart cake turned out - requested by Alissa for her little Eva's 4th birthday party!

A note from Eva's mom Alissa: 

"The cake was AMAZING! You should have seen Eva's face when I gave her a sneak peek before the party."

Now that is too darn cute.

Yep, heart day is coming! And here at Coco Cake Land I'll be slamming out some seriously cute and heart-y cake tutorials! If you love hearts, you're in luck - if you hate hearts, I hope you don't barf too much over all the love that'll be flowing round these parts soon!

Happy Friday, cake friends.

LOVE, Lyndsay ^__^