Sequel to the Birthday Brat cake from last year, where I get to play around with piping tips and pop culture references I barely understand. # 413: Love Island Cake

While this one was more effort than last year’s (looking at you Bday Brat cake with your single frosting color and single piping tip) this one was infinitely more fun to make! It had the same gluten-free chocolate cake layers, but I went with vanilla pastry cream instead of diplomat cream for the filling.

The requested style for my sister-in-law’s friend’s cake this year is proof that every fad comes back around eventually. Leaning fully into retro chic with six colors of Swiss meringue buttercream extravagantly piped onto a heart-shaped layer cake.

Arguably the best part of decorating a cake is spinning the finished cake slowly on the turntable. Thriving on the drama!

The only mise en place I managed to capture was for the pastry cream, oops.

There are so many ways to make a heart shape without buying a special pan! Earlier this year I made a heart cake out of a square and a circle, which makes this cake look svelte in comparison. Using an entire round cake just for the shoulders of the heart give it a more rounded bubble look. While I love a chonky heart, this time I just used 9″ round cakes for convenience; I happen to have four of them and could bake all the layers simultaneously.

To go from a circle to a heart, you slice the bottom two-thirds into a point and then use buttercream to glue the two rounded scraps to the top third of the cake to make the shoulders of the heart.

Bowls on bowls on bowls.

Bringing back the immersion blender magic trick to get neon from this pastel buttercream cloud.

Boom!

Disclaimer: Air bubbles were sacrificed to create this color.

Crumb coats are essential both for getting a smooth frosting finish and keeping cakes warm in chilly Bay Area summers.

I’ve never seen Love Island but it sounds like a more involved version of Bachelor in Paradise, with more episodes than is humanly possible to watch. But hey, zero judgement coming from the girl who spends her time reading fluffy romantasy books. Game respects game.

Are we getting waves on a beach?

It’s supposed to be ocean or sky (both?) so I’m feeling comfy with a little color and texture variation here and there.

Ok pearl sprinkles are WAY too much fun.

Living for the little palm trees! I used the same piping tip to make leaves in these succulent cookie cups and the curved structure gives it more 3D oomph.

Happy munching!