Heart-Shaped Auction Cake

Well, here is the cake I was talking about yesterday. I did decide to stick to the heart theme, but not tailor it specifically to Valentine's Day. I began with a chocolate heart-shaped cake, and iced it in vanilla buttercream. Then I piped on the borders using dark pink buttercream. The top outer border is a shell border, and the bottom a ruffle border. I also outlined a smaller heart shape in the middle in stars. Then I used my drop flower tip to pipe small purple flowers around the cake. I used my rose tip to pipe two drop swirl flowers in the center heart. Then I used a plain open tip and green buttercream to pipe the centers of all of the flowers, then switched to a leaf tip to pipe a few leaves on the center flowers. 

I was trying to keep the cake design relatively simple, and went by the less is more approach, in order not to overdo it. Often simple designs sell better than complicated, intricate "busy" cakes, as long as the simple cake is perfect and professional-looking. Of course I could have added more flowers, or used more colors, or tried some intricate lace or filigree designs, but it just is not necessary. Sweet and simple seems to work the best in this case. I also went with simple drop flowers and drop swirl flowers because I have not yet mastered buttercream roses. I can do them, they just aren't as professional-looking as I would like. I continue to practice them on cakes at home, but I did not want to feature them on a cake to be auctioned off, as I wanted this cake to look its best.