This time of year, what better way to say I love you than a bleeding human heart! I kid. Well, not really. Last year, I used a candy mold to make Cupcakes topped with Anatomical Chocolate Hearts. I have a thing about those anatomical hearts. Those pink & red greeting card hearts are definitely not my thing, but anatomical hearts…. there’s just something so curious and macabre about them. So this year, I decided to make not only a bleeding heart, but an Open Book Cake to display it on.
I am certainly not the only baker/blogger out there who has turned to anatomical hearts this time of year.. but here’s the thing I found most interesting when perusing the internet for inspiration… Over, and over again… I found other bakers and bloggers creating the same bleeding heart cupcake all inspired by a recipe from baker extraordinaire Lily Vanilli.
Once I took a closer look.. I totally understood – don’t mess with a good thing! Lily’s bleeding heart cake is realistic, gory, and perfect! I decided to join the crowd and try my hand at her recipe.
When I looked at this bleeding heart, I couldn’t help but be reminded of something. “I admit the deed! –tear up the planks! here, here! –It is the beating of his hideous heart!” Let’s be honest, I sort of have Poe on the brain at all times… are you surprised? And for those of you that don’t recognize the line…. do yourself a favor and read The Tell-Tale Heart. You can thank me later.
Did you know that Poe’s birthday was last weekend? What better time to combine the bleeding heart cake with his prose. A juxtaposition of both murderous horror and dark romance. You may not agree, but to me… if it’s red or has a heart of any kind, it’s fair game for Valentine’s Day. So, to complete this Valentine dessert… I created a book cake to showcase Poe’s famous poem, and topped it with a bleeding tell-tale heart.
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Let’s start with the cake…
What you’ll need:
- Foam Core Board
- Cake batter – use any cake recipe or box mix you’d like
- Cake Pan (Read on to determine correct size) – I used this 13×9″ Nonstick Cake Pan
- Cake Knife
- Filling of your choice
- Buttercream (for crumb coating)
- Cake Smoothing Tools
- White fondant
- Carving tools
- Petal Dust – I used a mix Cocoa
and Coffee
- Cake Decorating Brushes
- Black Modeling Chocolate
- Edible Glue
- Printed Edible Icing Sheets
and 
TIP: I suggest first finding a book to use as a guide. This will help when measuring the foam core base, the pattern pieces for the cake, and the icing sheet design. What to look for: The overall dimension of the book – find one the same size as the cake you want to create, the size of each individual page, and the size of the text box on each page.
Let’s talk about the Icing sheets first….
Unless you happen to be cool enough to have your own edible printer, these sheets will need to be custom made. That means you have to do a bit of prep work ahead of time.
Once you’ve selected the book you’ll be using as a guide… note the individual page size, and the size of the text box. Because most printed icing sheets have size limitations, ensure your book page and text will fit within those limits.
I worked with CCCakeToppers on Etsy to print my sheets. They were helpful, quick to answer any questions, and had a super fast turn around time. They offered custom printing, so I was able to design the pages myself.
When creating the design file, I tossed around whether to scan an image of the pages from one of my Poe books or to design the pages from scratch. I ultimately chose to design from scratch.. no shock there being the perfectionist that I am! I felt the text in a typed file would have more clarity once printed and applied to the cake, and I also had a bit more control over the size and placement of the text box. I used Adobe Illustrator to create the file simply because I’m most comfortable with that program, but a fancy design program is completely unnecessary.. a simple text program like Word is all you need. After all, you’re just retyping the poem. Choose the portion of the poem you want featured on the cake, and start typing, adjusting the text box and font size as needed until you have two pages of text. Don’t forget to add the header, so you can display the poem name. That being said, if you are unable or do not want to type the poem yourself, a scanned copy of an original book is still just as good of an option. For one, I doubt anyone is going to be sitting down with a cup of tea to read your cake, so if there’s a slight lack of text clarity, it’s not the end of the world. Two, the ultimate goal is for this cake to look like an old book, and a copy of an old book is a safe bet. Lastly, while this step may be a bit tedious, you can technically control the size of the text by scaling the scanned image until you get it perfect.
Send the image files to the Edible Printing company of your choice, and order your custom icing sheets.
Do not create the cake until you have the icing sheets in hand. The CCCakeToppers sheets have a 1 year shelf life, so feel free to work as far ahead of time as you’d like.
Now let’s build that cake…
Trace around your selected guide book onto the foam core board. Adjust as necessary if you want the cake to be slightly larger or smaller. This is going to serve as both the base of your cake, and eventually become the edges of the book’s cover.
Draw a line down the center of the board. This will come in handy when you’re placing the cakes.
Cut the base out.
The foam core will also be used to create a pattern piece for carving the cake. Using your book as a guide, trace the shape of the book onto the foam core. Because this is a cake, I encourage you to exaggerate the shape of the book. You’ll notice that I traced the shape of the book onto the foam core, and then began to free hand a more exaggerated curve. Even after I took this photo, I continued to play with it until I got it perfect. Keep in mind that the total length of your pattern piece should mirror the width of the book’s pages. As a good rule of thumb, measure from the center line to the edge, and subtract 1/4″… that’s the length of your pattern piece.
How many cakes you need to bake will depend entirely on the pan you use, and the size of the book you have chosen. I used a 9 x 13 pan, which was slightly smaller than the book I was planning for. Therefore each cake that I made was used for only one side of the book. Also, because I wanted a higher curved shape, I needed a second cake layer to get the height I needed for the carving. In all, I baked 4 cakes.
The type of cake you use does not matter… it will be covered with frosting and fondant, so anything goes. I opted to use box mix cake purely for efficiency. You probably noticed that one of my cake layers is a different color. I know! Stupid me accidentally grabbed three chocolate cakes, and one German chocolate cake. Oops! It’s rare for a project like this, with so many steps involved, not to have an oops now and then!
Refrigerate the cakes overnight. This will firm them up a bit, and make them easier to work with.
Slice the rounded top off of the bottom layer of cake so that it’s completely level.
Trim all of the cakes to the size of the book pages.
Spread some frosting onto the foam core base.
Place the leveled layer of cake onto the base using the center line as your guide, and making sure that roughly 1/4-3/8″ of the foam core base is extending past the cake on the other three sides.
Add frosting to the top of the bottom cake layer. Again, the type of frosting you use in this step does not matter. Just choose a frosting that compliments your cake. I happened to be in a coconut pecan mood that day. The sides of the cake need to be fairly smooth so make sure the frosting isn’t spilling out of the sides.
Add the top layer of the cake. When I trimmed this layer, I intentionally left the rounded top on one side to help mimic the curve of the pages.
Use your pattern piece to carve the shape of the book… doing your best to keep each side symmetrical.
Once the cake was completely carved, I put it back in the refrigerator for a few hours.
Meanwhile, I prepared the buttercream. Everyone seems to have their own version of a buttercream recipe, so feel free to use your favorite. I used 1 cup of room temp butter, 3 cups of powdered sugar, 3 tbsp of heavy cream, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. You’ll want the buttercream to be room temperature before spreading it on the cake. I typically wait to make it until the cake is chilled and ready for frosting.
Onto the Cake Decorating…
Crumb coat the entire cake with the buttercream. To do this, spread a thin layer of buttercream across the surface of the cake, with the intention of “catching the crumbs”. I used every bit of the buttercream for this step. Smooth it out as best as possible, but you’ll have another opportunity to do this in the next step.
Put the cake in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to allow the buttercream to stiffen.
Make another fresh batch of buttercream.
Frost the cake with another layer of buttercream, and smooth.
Put the cake in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes to allow the buttercream to stiffen.
Measure the cake height, width, and length, and add an inch or two to determine the size of the fondant you’ll need.
Knead the white fondant, and use a roller to roll it out to the size you need, about 1/8″ thick.
Brush the cake with warm water. This allows the fondant to stick better.
Lay the fondant over the cake, and secure and smooth from the center out.
Once the fondant is shaped around the cake, trim the edges.
Use a razor blade to slice a thin layer of fondant at each corner. Curl the fondant around a pencil or something similar to create the curled up page corners.
Use a tool to create indentions in the fondant to look like pages. I actually used a variety of tools in this step… to create the pages and the corners… a mix of a wooden modeling tool, a razor blade, and a cleanup tool. I also added an indention at the center of the book to give the illusion of a binding.
Once the pages have been created, gently brush a mix of cocoa and coffee petal dust to give an antiqued look to the pages. Use a wet paper towel or cloth to blend the dust as needed.
Knead the modeling chocolate.
Roll it out to the length of each side of the book, and 1/8″ thick.
Cut the chocolate in 1/4 – 3/8″ strips, with mitered corners.
Using edible glue, attach the modeling chocolate around the edge of the cake to create the book cover.
You’ll notice the foam core board is visible, so I rolled out a thin length of modeling chocolate, and again glued it to cover the board.
Before adding the icing sheet, trim the sheets down to the appropriate page size for your cake.
Brush water over the surface of the fondant where the icing sheets will go.
Lay the sheet onto the fondant.. I choose to start with the outer edge of the page and smooth it down towards the center. It will stick pretty quickly, so work fast if you need to adjust it. Smooth out any air bubbles, and press firmly against the fondant. These sheets clearly work best against flat, even plains, so the more symmetrical your page is, the easier it will be to secure the icing. Mine of course was not, after all I’m not a pro cake carver, so I had a bit more of a battle with air bubbles along the edges of the sheets. I ended up using the edible glue to seal the sheet to the fondant in a few places.
Now for the heart…
- 1 cooled batch of Red Velvet cupcakes (1 per heart)
- Red fondant
- Clear piping gel
- Red gel food coloring
- Black gel food coloring
- Seedless Raspberry Jam
Before I even attempt to explain this…. there is a Video featuring Lily Vanilli, where she walks thru exactly how to create these hearts. I encourage you to watch the video. No written explanation can really do the tutorial justice, and like I said earlier… why mess with a good thing.
For each heart, sprinkle powdered sugar on your work surface, and roll a ball of fondant into an oval shape roughly 8 x 4″, and about 1/4″ thick.
Tip: a silicone rolling pin and mat also help to prevent sticking
Place one of the cupcakes upright in the center of the fondant.
Overlap the long ends of fondant at the top of the cake.
Fold one end of the fondant like a package to create a base for the heart to sit on. Trim excess as needed.
Using your hands, mold the heart’s three arteries out of the other end of fondant.
In a small bowl, combine the clear piping gel with some drops of red gel food coloring. In another bowl, combine the piping gel with the red gel food coloring, and a few drops of black.
Using a soft brush, paint the fondant with the piping gel, highlighting creases and edges with the darker mix.
Note: The original recipe called for a mixed berry coulis to use as the blood, but I opted to work with an easier method. Feel free to use the coulis in the next step if you prefer.
In a saucepan, cook the raspberry jam over low heat. I worked with about a 1/2 cup at a time, and made more as needed.. it only takes minutes. Add a tablespoon of water.. this helps the texture remain sauce-like once it cools… instead of turning back to jam. Once heated throughout, and smooth in texture, allow the sauce to cool for just long enough to become a bit sticky.
Place the heart on top of the cake.
Spoon the raspberry ‘blood’ onto the arteries, dripping down the sides of the heart, and in a puddle around the base.
At this point I would typically say… slice into that cake and enjoy… but if you’re anything like me, it won’t be easy to tear into that thing after all of the work that goes into it. Just make sure to show it off.. get lots of accolades… and then enjoy. Oh.. and a word of warning… Fondant is not the most appetizing to take a big bite into, so it’s best to tear the hearts open and eat the cupcake inside.
Damn girl! That’s a bloody cake??? I bow down to your extraordinary baking talent. I would’ve been chuffed to pieces just to make the book and heart out of, you know, non-edible fayre. I am truly awestruck. Sue x
haha! Thanks Sue… I’m not even sure how I pulled it off… not without some mishaps of course, but hopefully nothing too noticeable! All I know is I got the idea in my head and I was going to make it hell or high water! 🙂 Glad you like it!!
So so so impressed!! Love it!
Although I would like to get such a cake for birthday, I must say that an artist (baker) is amazing artist. Congrats and keep on the good work.
Thank you Gasi!! Much appreciated!!