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mini hearts and four large hearts. Set the large hearts aside and attach the mini hearts between the hot-pink hearts around the cake with a little water.
    7 Take six gold florists’ wires and cut each in half. Gather the wires together evenly and wind the seventh piece of wire around the base of the wires to secure them together tightly (see Making a wired cake topper ).
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TIP
    When making cake toppers, push the posy pick into a piece of polystyrene or a potato to keep it steady and upright while you’re working on it.
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    8 Fit the wire bunch into a posy pick then curve the wires into position running the wire through your fingertips in the same way as you would curl a ribbon over scissors.
    9 Gently push the large purple and hot-pink hearts onto each wire in turn, squeezing with your fingers to secure.
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    The number of wires you use for the fountain is up to you – try using more or fewer, you could even try having some shorter lengths and some longer ones.
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    10 Roll a small ball of purple and a small ball of hot-pink sugarpaste and flatten them gently with your hand to create two fat circles. Stack the circles in the centre of the top of the mini-cake and push the posy pick through the centre and down into the cake.
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    â€œWhen time is short and you haven’t been able to let your cake card dry out, place the mini-cake on a chopping board to decorate it, then lift it carefully onto the covered card when done. This will stop you making marks in the wet sugarpaste.”
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Strawberry fields
Creating stylized fruits
    These cute cookies put your heart cutters to good use – they would be perfect for a summer tea party or just to delight the children.

Get it together…
    12 large and 12 small heart cookies
    Sugarpaste: red, white and green
    Cutters: large and small heart cookie, small square
    Gold sugar dragees
    Basic equipment (see Equipment )
    1 Take a small ball of red sugarpaste and knead into the white sugarpaste to create a pink blush colour.
    2 Roll out the red sugarpaste to a 3mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) thickness. Cut out six large hearts using the large heart cookie cutter and six small hearts using the small heart cookie cutter. Repeat using the pink blush sugarpaste.
    3 Brush the top of each cookie with a little water and attach the sugarpaste hearts in place, pressing down lightly to secure.
    4 Roll out the green sugarpaste to a 2mm ( 1 ⁄ 16 in). Using the heart cutters again, cut out 24 strawberry hulls (12 large, 12 small) using the top part of the cutters only.
    5 Trim down the cut outs and take out the ‘V’ shapes using the corner of a small square cutter. Secure in place on the strawberries with a dab of water.
    6 Shape 24 stalks from the green sugarpaste and fix in place with water.
    7 Using the end of your paintbrush, make small indentations for the seeds. Apply a dot of water to each indentation and fill with a gold dragee. Press each dragee down lightly with your fingertip to help them stay in place.
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    Rub over the top of the sugarpaste hearts with an icing smoother to remove any finger marks once in place.
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Blue blooms
Making ruffle flowers
    These pretty cupcakes have a great wow factor with only a tiny bit of effort. This design would also work on cookies, and in any number of colours.

Get it together…
    Six cupcakes baked in turquoise-blue paper cases
    Buttercream
    Sugarpaste: blue and white
    Round cutters: same size as cupcake tops and 2.5cm (1in)
    Large daisy or blossom cutter
    Blue sugar pearls
    Basic equipment (see Equipment )
    1 Trim the domes from the tops of your cupcakes and spread a thin layer of buttercream on the top.
    2 Roll out the blue sugarpaste to a 3mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) thickness. Using a round cutter the same size as the top of your cupcakes, cut out six circles and attach in place on the tops of the cupcakes.
    3 Cut out six 2.5cm (1in) circles from the rolled-out blue sugarpaste for the ruffle flowers. Fold