Baked: Heart + Arrow Cake and XO Brownies
A couple of days ago I decided to make some festive treats and upon completion, found myself with this lovely little Valentine's Day Heart+Arrow cake and some XO brownies. Pretty cute, right?!
The Heart + Arrow cake and the XO brownies don't need much of a tutorial as they're pretty self-explanatory, but see below for a couple of tips to easily replicate these in your own kitchen.For the brownies: Use letter cookie cutters (or cut out by hand) a few X and O letters. Select two complementary icing colors and pour each mixture into a disposable pastry bag. Then, get to decorating! If you're new to icing tips and decorating, I suggest you head on over to YouTube for some icing tutorials - the Wilton YT channel has a lot of very helpful videos. And with a little bit of practice, you'll be an icing expert in no time!
For the cake, use a heart cookie cutter (like the one I used for the heart krispies) to cut out 2 heart cakes, each approx 1" in height. Ice in between the cake layers and then cover the entire cake with a crumb layer. Once the crumb layer is set, add 1 more icing layer to achieve a smooth cake and let it set. Once that is ready, decorate! I used mint green icing to add a decorative swirl to the sides and piped pink icing onto the top to finish off my cake.For the arrow, you will need a cookie stick (or skewer), 3 Starburst® candies, and some edible gold glitter. Place the Starburst® candies in a bowl and heat in the microwave for 10 seconds until soft. Remove and mold the candies into an arrow pattern, using scissors and/or a knife to achieve the intricate details. Once you have achieved your desired arrow shape, lightly dust with edible gold glitter or spray. And lastly, stick the arrow in your cake!(Hint: If you're having trouble with the arrow, check out my acorn + leaf cake topper tutorial for another look at working with Starburst® candies)
