How to Make a Retro Heart Buttercream Cake

* Betty Crocker Classic Vanilla Cake Mix

* Betty Crocker Velvety Vanilla Buttercream Icing x3

* Piping Bags

* Violet Colour Splash Gel

* Rainbow Dust Pink ProGel Colouring

* PME Plain Edge Side Scraper

* Wilton Decorator preferred Round Cake Pan 6x3 inches

* Baked with Love White Round Double Thick Cake Board 8 inches

* Wilton No.103 Flower Petal Decorating Tip

* Wilton Round Decorating Tips No.5 & No.21

* Greaseproof Paper for Cake Tins

* A Pastry Brush

* 30g Butter for Greasing Tin

* Scissors

* Cooling Rack

* Small Bowls

* Tablespoons

* A Sharp Serrated Knife

* A Palette Knife

* A Butter Knife

* A Tall Cup for Balancing

* Cocktail Sticks

Preheat your oven to 170°C fan and brush cake release all over the inside of 2, 8” heart shaped cake tins.

Optional: You can line the base of the tins with a heart shaped piece of greaseproof paper just to ensure easy removal!

To do this, draw around the tin onto the paper with a pencil and cut out, just inside of the line.

Cream together the sugar and butter/margarine in a stand mixer or with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla extract.

Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix until just incorporated.

Lastly, add the milk and stir to combine.

Divide the mixture equally between the 2 tins and use a spatula to spread the top evenly.

Bake in the top half of the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. The top of the cake should feel springy to the touch and will have shrunk away from the sides of the tin slightly.

Leave the cakes in the tins for 5 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack to go completely cold.

In the meantime, you can prepare your filling for the cake – chocolate ganache or buttercream, salted caramel or whatever takes your fancy!

Level the tops of the cakes using a serrated knife to remove any domed tops. Take one of the cakes and stick it to a cake board with a blob of buttercream or ganache. Spread a layer of buttercream for the filling.

Top Tip: If you want to use a runnier filling such as caramel or jam then pipe a dam of ganache or buttercream around the outside edge - this will stop the filling leaking out of the sides of the cake.

Invert the other cake and place on top.

Cover the whole cake with a crumb coat of buttercream or ganache and use a cake scraper to smooth the top and sides.

Chill the cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes whilst you mix up the fosting colours to decorate the exterior of the cake.

Decant 2 pots of vanilla frosting into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat for a couple of minutes.

Separate the frosting into bowls and colour each bowl with a drop or 2 of gel food colouring. Cover your chilled cake with your base colour of frosting and use the cake scraper to ensure a smooth finish.

Return the cake to the fridge for another 30 minutes to set firm.

Optional: If you’d like to add a message to the top of the cake you can pipe this freehand or print out your message in a decorative font printed to the correct size to fit your cake.

Cut the message out and use a pin to pierce through the paper along the lettering, you should be able to feel puncture marks on the back of the paper, a bit like braille!

Remove the chilled cake from the fridge and gently press the paper into the top of the cake to imprint the message into the frosting. Pipe over the guide lines with your frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small open star nozzle. For added effect, overpipe the letters with white frosting and a small round writing nozzle to really make your message pop!

Use a cocktail stick to mark out where to pipe swags and ruffles around the side of the cake.

Load up the next colour of frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large leaf tip.

Start at the bottom point of the heart and pipe the swags all along the perimeter of the cake, using your score lines as a guide.