Teddy has been asking me to try making the viral Taylor Swift Blank Space cake – do you know this bonkers cake? It’s where you hide some sort of edible fake blood inside of a pristine white buttercream frosted heart cake, and then you proceed to stab it with a knife. YEP. Haha… I was excited that he was excited about making something together, so of course I had to do it!
So, in the Blank Space music video, Tay Tay stabs her heart cake and blood comes spurting out like a jettison. After doing some online research, the blood spray comes from a fake blood-filled BALLOON inserted into the cake, then frosted to hide it. However, I also read that the balloon gets all chopped up inside of the cake, making it pretty hard to eat with bits of balloon pieces, haha. So I wanted to try making a balloon-free zone!
Okay, warning: LOOK AT THIS GORY MESS OF A CAKE BELOW!!
It was fun to creative problem solve making this cake. Initially I thought I’d make a white chocolate sphere to hide inside the cake instead of putting a balloon in there. Then I thought – what about just a big old scooped out divot filled with “blood”? WAY EASIER! (I don’t have a microwave so melting chocolate involves saucepans and stuff.)
Heart shaped cake layers: I don’t think too many folks have three identical heart-shaped cake pans. Luckily, fashioning a round cake into a heart cake is completely possible! My friend Whitney has a great Easy Heart Shaped Cake Tutorial post about cutting your round cakes into a heart shape! I also show you how to do it in the video below :)
One recipe for vanilla cake – I have a conventional recipe below, but follow one of my vegan cake recipes from Plantcakes: Fancy + Everyday Vegan Cakes for Everyone for a vegan version! (I’ll post a recipe shortly!)
One recipe for vanilla buttercream – this is my easiest recipe, and not too sweet! To make it vegan, simply replace conventional butter with unsalted plant-based butter in brick form.
Piping tips and piping bags – You’ll also need an open-star tip to pipe the shell borders, and a large open circle tip to pipe the buttercream bridge to cover the jam-filled cake hole. Additionally you’ll also need a small open circle tip to pipe your cake message! Not comfortable writing on a cake? I have a quick hack for How To Write On A Cake!
Seedless raspberry jam – I watched a lot of Blank Space cake videos to see what was poppin’ inside these cakes! Some cake makers used cherry juice or corn syrup. Upon googling edible fake blood ideas (so yucky! haha) I came across my friend Chelsey’s excellent and simple idea for Edible Fake Blood! It is a breeze to make, too, and tastes great! You can thin it out to your desired consistency, and add a bit of gel food colouring to make it extra saturated, if desired! Meet me on the other side of this video for the cake recipe and instructions!
