This February we’re starting our Valentine’s celebrations early and have had a rather sweet and tasty start by making these fondant fancies. These cakes are so nice to receive as a gift or a favor and don’t have to be made only on Valentine’s Day. They are also perfect for Baby showers, Weddings and all types of party.

- I used a mixer for my cake mix but this can also be mixed by hand.

- Pre-heat your oven to 200c / 400f

- Click here for a weight conversion chart

For the cakes and fondant topping

• Start by creaming the butter and sugar together
• Add the flour, eggs, vanilla essence and splash of milk (if necessary and the mixture is a bit dry) and mix together until all the ingredients are combined and the mixture is light and fluffy with no lumps

• Grease your square baking tin and pour the cake mixture in
• Put the tin onto a low shelf in the oven and bake for around 55-60 minutes
• Check the cake regularly and when you can insert a knife into the middle of the cake and it comes out clean the cake is baked
• Once the cake has been removed from the oven allow it to cool completely before removing it from the tin

• Place the cooled cake onto a chopping board and using a long sharp knife cut the cake into small squares
• I cut the lines on my cake so I ended up with 20 squares in total but you may prefer to cut your lines closer together so you end up with more squares. If you’ve found that the top of the cake has baked unevenly then slice the top of the cake off using a long, sharp knife.
• In your mixer combine the butter, icing sugar and food colouring – we used a light pink

• Using a pallet knife spread the butter icing over each of the individual cake squares.
• Take your sugar paste and using a rolling pin and a light dusting of flour roll the paste out until it is about 2 mm thick.

• Then use a sharp knife to cut out little square tops for your cake squares and these will sit on top of the butter icing. By using the thin layer of sugar paste on top of your cakes will help to keep the top neat and flat when you start to cover them in the fondant icing. You may also use marzipan.
• We found our fondant icing from a baking supplier online by searching for it, we then followed the instructions for making it on the packet. But no matter what fondant icing you use when you are heating it up never let it boil or else it will lose its distinctive shine. Heat gently. Get a feel for the fondant. Lift it out of the pan and see if the consistency will allow you to drizzle it over the cakes and cover them sufficiently.
• We separated the cakes into two batches; ten of the cakes would be coloured red and ten of the cakes would be coloured pink using a paste colouring
• We added a poppy red food colouring to our first batch of fondant and a very pale rose pink food coloring for our second batch.

• We found that the best way to cover the individual cakes as evenly as possible was to stick a fork into the underside of the cake and hold it over the bowl of fondant and then drizzle the fondant onto the cake with a spoon until it is covered.
• We then placed the individually covered cakes onto a wire rack (with a tray underneath to catch any drips) and allowed them to dry.

Note: This can be a very messy process, so don’t be too hard on yourself if the fondant doesn’t sit perfectly smooth on your cakes! This is one where practice definitely makes perfect.

• Make sure that the fondant is fully dry and hardened before you try to move them from the wire rack.

Click here to follow my How-To for the rose decoration cake-toppers

Not wanting to stick solely to the traditional bright red palette of Valentine’s Day I found some delicious Tiffany blue boxes that fit my fondant fancies perfectly. Each one could be an individual gift if I wanted.

The pink and white cakes I can imagine being used at a wedding. As individual favors or as one part of the main cake itself.

Serve with ranunculus and you’ll have created a sweet sight of something that’s nothing more than a delight to make, look at and then scoff!

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