This cute Love Bug Cake by Lakeland makes a brilliant centrepiece and adds fun and romance to a special dinner or party!
STEP 1 – Gather your kit
You will need: FOR THE CAKE • your favourite cake, baked in a medium hemisphere pan (we used a simple 3-egg Victoria sandwich mix) TO DECORATE • Renshaw Ready-to-Roll Icing; pink, fuchsia pink, white, black • edible glue • 50g (13⁄4oz) desiccated coconut EQUIPMENT • 4 daisy mini fondant icing cutters • 25cm (10in) round cake drum • professional piping set • Scrumptious Glimmer Heart Sprinkles • Wilton® Icing Colours – Leaf Green
STEP 2 – Bake your bug
Bake your cake at 160°C/Gas Mark 3 for 45-60 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Once baked, leave in the tin until completely cool, then trim off any excess and turn out onto a rack.
STEP 3 – Cover it up
Mix up some buttercream (we used 100g (31⁄2oz) unsalted butter to 200g (7oz) icing sugar, flavoured with 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract) and apply a thin, smooth layer all over the cake, reserving a little to attach the cake to the cake drum. Place the cake in the fridge for an hour to harden.
STEP 4 – Pretty in pink
Roll out pink ready-to-roll icing into a circle about 30cm (12in) across. Lift the circle using a rolling pin or your hands, then drape it over the top of the cake. Smooth the fondant down over the cake, using your hands or an icing smoother to push out any air bubbles and creases, starting at the top, then working down the sides. Use a small knife to cut away any excess icing, taking care not to cut too close to the cake. Re-roll any leftover icing and use every size of the daisy cutters to cut out flowers to add to the body of the cake. Set these aside. To start making your love bug’s face, roll and cut out a large semi-circle of fuchsia pink icing and attach this to the ‘front’ of your cake using a little edible glue (it should cover roughly one-third of the cake). Trim off any excess from the base. Spread the reserved buttercream on the base of the cake and position it in the centre of a 25cm (10in) drum. To complete the body, use the handle of a wooden spoon to create an indent down the back of the bug, making a gap between the wings. Cut out six identical circles of the fuchsia pink icing – we used the base of one of the stainless steel icing nozzles from the Lakeland Professional Piping Set – and stick three onto each wing. Attach the pink daisies around and between these, placing one of the smallest sizes at the top centre of your bug’s face.
STEP 5 – Make a face
For the eyes, roll and cut out two circles of white ready-to-roll icing and two slightly smaller ones of black icing – again, we used the bases of icing nozzles to cut these out. Roll more black icing into a long, thin sausage and divide it to make the mouth and eyelashes. Stick the eyes together using edible glue, then attach the eyes, eyelashes and mouth to the face with a little more glue. Roll a slightly thicker sausage of black icing for the antennae, cut it in half and roll both partway, then stick these on above the face.
STEP 6 – Finishing touches
We think such a lovely bug deserves a pretty place to rest, so we added a small amount of green food colouring to desiccated coconut to make ‘grass’ and sprinkled it around the base of our cake. We also glued a white Glimmer Heart sprinkle onto each of the eyes, then scattered a few more around the base for a final flourish.
