Cake making advice

downshifted

I’ve never been good at fancy decorated cakes although I can make a decent sponge or fruit cake. I want to make a heart shaped cake for Wednesday decorated with red icing and a lightning strike to celebrate my husband’s survival after a cardiac arrest. We had a hard time but he’s fine now. I asked a local shop but they wanted £85 for one that serves 8 people and frankly if I paid over £10 per slice he’d have another one.

I’ve  seen a video that shows how to make heart shapes from square and round tins and I have 8” round and square. Can anyone please help me with the amount of cake and type and amount of icing I need to use for these sizes? Just a Victoria sponge. Many thanks

Rosa_Damascena

There used to be a really good "What have you baked today" thread on OS. We had a few posters that made amazing creations, and the thread was full of advice and inspro - am hoping they'll emerge to help you OP.

YBR

Google it!
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Heart-Shaped-Cake

middlewife

Google cakesbylynzuk there's full measurements on there.  Might knock up a batch of heart shaped cookies for the vaccination centre tomorrow.  4 hours on your feet works up an appetite! Good luck!

downshifted

I’m still struggling. I need to know how much Victoria sponge to mix to for an 8 inch round and an 8 inch square pan, so that they come out more or less even height. Then some ideas for how much icing and what kind to use?

I have googled and not found the basic info I need.

KxMx

If you look at individual recipies then they  state the pan size used, some give alternative recipies for different sizes, example of both here:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/cakes/mary-berrys-victoria-sponge-recipe-amp.html

BBC have a cake calculator here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/sponge_cake_calculator

You may get better results height wise by using either the round or square tin and baking twice.
May work out simpler but watch the cooking time for second bake, as the oven is likely to be hotter by that point.

Brambling

I seen recipes that say divide the mixture evenly by weight between the square and round tins, I would suggest Mary Berry Victoria sponge recipe as well for a 8" round it will be a 4 egg recipe and you can't go too wrong with her recipes 

you can trim the cake to get the same height and level off the tops, any slight differences can be filled with butter icing 

Here's another butter icing calculator 

https://www.sarahsibley.com/much-buttercream-i-need/

babyshoes

Can't help with the amount of cake, but in terms of icing, I do know that getting a buttercream properly red is tricky, so you might want to consider buying pre-coloured icing. 

I would do buttercream for the base of the cake. (Make sure the cake is properly cold before you start, add a thin layer of icing to trap the crumbs, put it in the fridge until that's well set, then do your main icing layer.)

The lightening bolt should be easy enough to cut out of yellow fondant. If you want to get fancy and avoid having the red icing stain the edges, do a double layer with black fondant on the bottom, cut slightly bigger to give you an outline. 

If that's too much trouble, just cut the lightening ahead of time and let it harden up on baking paper, then pop it onto the cake at the last second before you bring it out. 

downshifted

KxMx said:

If you look at individual recipies then they  state the pan size used, some give alternative recipies for different sizes, example of both here:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/cakes/mary-berrys-victoria-sponge-recipe-amp.html

BBC have a cake calculator here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/sponge_cake_calculator

You may get better results height wise by using either the round or square tin and baking twice.
May work out simpler but watch the cooking time for second bake, as the oven is likely to be hotter by that point.

I’m sure you’re trying to be helpful and I’m grateful but I’d already looked at these previously and not found either of them helped for 8 inch square and round tins (1 layer) Am I missing something?

downshifted

Brambling Thank you, I’ve seen that too but I’ve also seen different amounts quoted because the square tin has a greater volume. I’m hoping someone who makes a lot more cakes than me might have tried it out.

I may end up doing a lot of trimming! 

Thank you for the icing calculator 

KxMx

EDITED:
I'm not familiar with baking heart shapes, from a quick search you use the square whole and cut the round in half, putting them together?

In which case you should be fine with asking the bbc calculator for 1x 1 layer 8" round cake and then 1x 1 layer 8" square cake, making separate mixes. 

I'd then measure the assembled cake at the widest point and ask the calculator to calculate icing for a single layer cake of either shape using that measurement.