Valentine Strawberry Gift Box Cake

Who wouldn't love to receive this pretty Strawberry Gift Box Cake as a valentine treat with gorgeous chocolate coated strawberries and adorned with a pretty red rose spray.

Well, I have two more Valentine Heart Cakes to share with you today and a small video tutorial coming up for you soon on a few heart mini cakes.

Valentine heart pillow cake

Those of you who are on my Newsletter Subscription will get a little how to information on this Standing Heart Pillow Cake .
If you missed it - then always look for the bonus on my latest Newsletter. You will find a password to access these bonus post that are specially for you.

Valentine gift box cake

Now this is a fairly easy Gift Box cake really. I cut out the heart shapes using a template.
I do have Heart shaped pans but I used a template this time.

As always I leveled, trimmed and crumb coated the cake.
This cake is filled with Chocolate Mousse and coated with Strawberry Ganache and of course Modelling Chocolate - Dark Modelling Chocolate

• The finished cake box is about 4 /14 inch tall.
• My actual cake inside is about 3 ½ inches tall
• Which means the rim for the strawberries is about ½ to ¾ inches tall.
• The lid can be made using one single layer cake but I used a piece of foam core for this cake. So the lid is not cake.
  If you use cake - just place it on a cake board the same shape and size of the cake. Then coat with frosting. Cover with fondant as normal.
• The top of the cake is a Heart shape cut out MC a little larger than the template.
• Then a long large strip of MC about 4 ¼ inches tall around the outside of the cake.
• And a thicker ½ inch strip of MC for the inside rim.
• A thin red strip of red for the top rim.
• To place the lid on the cake use dowels for support. The dowel must go into the cake and come up - hidden between the strawberries. The lip is supported only on the dowels not on the cake at all.!

Pin this Tutorial on Pinterest

And of course we have the Strawberries coated in chocolate which again I have shared in detail before.

How to make chocolate coated strawberries

• Wash and wipe the Strawberries well. It is important to wipe the strawberries well or any drop of water will seize the chocolate
• Melt and temper chocolate - you can see two post on this blog on how to melt chocolate
  one is my Tip Thursday - How to temper chocolate
  And the second is more detailed by Katrien - Tips on melting and working with chocolate
• Alternatively use candy melts or compound chocolate as they do not need to be tempered. Just melt and dip away. But of course this is not real chocolate!!
• Dip each strawberry into the melted chocolate about ⅔. Wait for the excess to drip
• Then place the chocolate coated strawberries on a parchment paper.
• They will be all wet and shiny at first but ones the chocolate sets the shiny appearance will go and they will have a nice chocolate sheen.
• Now you can decorate these further by drizzling some melted white chocolate but I am using them in this gift box cake just as is.

And here they are on the cake

Tip - Do not prepare your strawberries much a head in advance - they are fruit and they will become soft. Over time they will release their juices which will make the cake soggy.
MY cake was ready the night before the strawberries were ready. The next day I worked on the strawberries. I placed the strawberries only an hour before the customer came to pick up the cake. That way they stay fresh for longer.

I do hope you will try this for your next Gift Box cake.

Happy Valentines Day to you all !!