Another idea I had in my mind for a while, particularly for Valentines day, was a totally chocolately chocolate cake covered in hearts, graduating from red, to pink as they went up the sides. Then I bought some new owl cutters totally on a whim. The idea and the cutters just seemed to go together, but when I made one owl it looked a bit lonely, so I added its mate to keep it company.

The dark one is a four layer devils food cake, filled with chocolate ganache and covered in chocolate sugarpaste – you really can’t get much more chocolately than this! The second one was a customer order, made from vanilla sponge and with a much lighter colour scheme. Both work well, and still other variations could work too.