When asked to create a Belle cake for a little girl who is an avid reader, this cake seemed the obvious response.
I found and printed a picture I liked, placed it in a clear zipper bag and piped over it, adding each element of Belle’s image in the different colours. Once I was happy with how she looked, I let the runout dry then carefully removed it from the plastic.

While it was drying out, I made several rectangular cakes and sandwiched them together into a single cake, carving it to represent an open book with pages curving in towards the spine and sloping at the edges.  I covered this in white fondant, added a pink surround for the cover and piped in the text.  Finally, I glued Belle’s image in place (with icing) and added a blue book mark.

The birthday girl was thrilled!