Please help! I am probably just overthinking this and can't see the obvious.. I am going to be making a 'heart shaped zebra print' cake for a 12yo bday party.

I didn't want to buy the heart pans so planned on making 2 8" squares and 2 8" rounds and putting together the heart. My first thought is that it is going to be huge and there are only going to be about 20 kids. Is that a ridiculous size? I plan to use Rebecca Sutterby's WASC but in chocolate - would that be a double batch?

The second thought is, will it show the creases of where the cakes come together? I'm going to cover it in white fondant. Will it work with 2 layers? I have visions of it falling apart..

Has anyone done this successfully? Maybe I should buy heart shaped pans??? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

By the way, I am completely addicted to this site, I have been late for work, stayed up til all hours, and had my kids make supper because I can't pull myself away. I may need an intervention...

Hi,

That will be a lot of cake (approx 62 servings), how about just making it a single layer but torte the layer and fill it. That will give you closer to the 20 servings needed.

In my photos I made my heart shaped bride/groom cakes with the 9" square and 9" round...they're both 1 layer cakes torted and filled.

The bride is just covered in bc, the groom in ganache with fondant accents and you can't see the seam. I use a good 1/4" to 3/8" of bc.

When I connected the 2 round halves onto the square I put some bc in between as a glue so they'd stay tightly up against the square. I hope I'm not confusing you.

Hi,
Actually if you look at the serving sizes, like in party cakes not wedding cake sizes, the 2 eight inch squares with the 2 eight inch rounds, stacked, will feed somewhere around 25-30 people and I think it will make a very nice size for a birthday cake. If you are worried about it being too tall, I agree with Deb_, only make the one layer and torte it.

To answer your other question, no you cannot see the "crease" where the cakes are put together. The way that I do hearts, and there are more than one right way to do it.

I would torte, fill and crumb coat the square cake onto your cake board. Then cut your round layers in half, torte, fill, an stick onto the cake board up against your square layer.

The crumb coat of the square layer will help attach the round layer to the square layer. You may need to trim your round cakes some to rest flatly up against the square layer. I then crumb coat the round areas of the heart. Let it rest a minute while I roll out my fondant, spray with a mist of water, and lay the fondant.

Smooth your fondant and trim like normal. You do need to make sure your bc is somewhat smooth or it may show through the fondant, but applying fondant to pieced together cakes, to me, is no different than applying it to a normal "one-piece" cake. Just make sure your fondant is not too thin and your cake board is not flimsy.

Another option if you are unsure of piecing it together is to bake a sheet cake, print a heart off of your computer the size that you would like it (Google hearts coloring picture, if needed), cut it out, lay on your sheet cake and trim your heart out from it. This would give you one solid piece but you would definitely have leftover cake pieces.....but your friends and family may love to eat your scraps...lol.

Good Luck and Happy Caking!

Thanks so much for your advice! I actually went and bought 2 9" heart shaped pans - AC Moore had all their pans for 40% off so I figured it wasn't a huge investment.. I'd rather not 'practice' piecing one together for someone else - I'll do it another time!
Thanks again!