AHi, I'm a novice cake decorator and have just started doing a few cakes for my children's birthdays over the last year.Next month, My mother in law is celebrating her 4 year anniversary of a successful heart transplant from which she has gotten a new lease of life. We are planning on having a party to celebrate and I would love to make a special cake to surprise her. Any one have any ideas on how I could decorate it (bearing in mind I'm still very much a beginner!:) ) Thanks for your help.

How about a heart-shaped (as in Valentine) cake, bearing an edible print of a photograph of a Human heart?

AHowever you decorate the outside, I think you should use this cake pan: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=2105-157

AThanks for the replies ladies. I love the cake pan, I'm off to have a search on amazon as wilton don't deliver here. :)

I love the idea of a heart baked in to the cake! Just be careful about using images of a real heart, etc.  Cutting in to that and eating it can be a bit much for some, especially when it's celebrating a major surgery.

For the design, what about cut out hearts all around the outside, maybe with one little red heart instead of the purple, like the top tier here.  Then you can write something on top if you like.

http://bronniebakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/19.jpg

You can cover in buttercream or fondant, then use a small heart shaped cutter to make lots of hearts & place them around the outside.  I love this design in ombre too, but that is a bit more involved.  Only thing to remember is straight lines of hearts definitely show off an uneven cake!

AWilton doesn't deliver to me either. (I'm in Canada) I think Golda's Kitchen ships everywhere. http://www.goldaskitchen.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=398&step=4

AI'm in Canada too, very sure I've seen that pan at michaels. Check there?

What if you made a gift box cake. Then still use the idea of the heart shape in the cake batter. Then its the gift of the heart.
 

AI'm in Ireland, but I was able to get a tin on amazon last night. Hopefully it won't take too long to deliver, looking forward to trying it! There are some lovely ideas here that I wouldn't have taught of. One of my favourite parts of cake decorating is the planning and researching , so thanks guys for your input!

A

Hi guys,

thanks for your lovely ideas for the cake. I ended up having a very busy week with work this week so had to go for a fairly simple design but the hidden heart was a nice surprise, heres a couple of pictures. My mother In law was delighted with it. And next year Ill definately be using the gift box idea for the 5th anniversary.

AIt looks wonderful! Well done! :)

ahh love the heart in the middle that is ace ;-) how did you get the heart shape?

AHi babbo, I used this cake tin http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=2105-157 which was recommended to me by as you wish on here.

I made one for a 20 year transplant anniversary. It was a 1/2 sheet cake and I put fondant hearts on it. But I used inspiring words from him on the cake.  I'm sure if you talk to her about her experience, you can get some inspiration from her to use. :)

AThat's a lovely idea Annie. You can't see it from the picture i posted but each of the hearts has a name of her grandchildren on them, 4 of whom have been born since her op and we will be forever grateful to her donor for allowing our children to grow up knowing and loving their nanny x