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Heart Cake

This Heart Cake is easy to make and super fun for Valentine’s Day! Strawberry Cake with vanilla buttercream just got cuter with this heart shaped cake!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Decorating Time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 18
Calories 408kcal
Author Lisa

Ingredients

  • 1 box of cake mix*
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tbs vanilla
  • ¾ cup sour cream
  • ¾ cup heavy cream
  • 4 large eggs

Vanilla Buttercream

  • 1 cup butter
  • 5 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbs vanilla
  • 5 tbs heavy cream + more if needed
  • Pinch of Salt
  • Pink food coloring I like to use gel
  • Sprinkles*

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease pan with baker’s spray.
  • Combine the cake mix, vegetable oil, vanilla, sour cream, heavy cream, and eggs in a large bowl.
    1 box of cake mix*, ½ cup vegetable oil, 2 tbs vanilla, ¾ cup sour cream, ¾ cup heavy cream, 4 large eggs
  • Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides when needed.
  • Pour into prepared heart shaped pan* and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If the cake starts to brown cover with foil and finish baking.
    cake patter in heart pan before baking
  • Allow cake to cool before removing from pan. To remove just flip the cake over and allow gravity to help it come out.
    cake baked in heart pan
  • While cake is cooling make frosting.
    cake on cooling rack

Vanilla Buttercream*

  • Cream butter using a stand mixer.
    1 cup butter
  • Mix in vanilla, then add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, alternating with heavy cream 1 tbs at a time. If the frosting is too stiff add a little heavier cream (~1 tbs at a time), if it’s to lose add a little more powdered sugar (~¼ cup at a time). Stir in salt.
    5 cups powdered sugar, 1 tbs vanilla, 5 tbs heavy cream + more if needed, Pinch of Salt
    best buttercream frosting
  • Remove ~½ cup frosting, add pink food coloring* and stir until fully incorporated.
    Pink food coloring

Frost Cake

  • Cut the cake in half to create two layers.
    ctting along toothpicks in cake
  • Spread a nice layer of vanilla butter cream on the first half, then stack the second layer on top.
    adding frosting to first layer of cake
  • Spread the remaining white buttercream over the cake.
    adding frosting to top of cake
  • Place pink frosting in a baggie with the corner cut off, or a piping bag, and draw a heart on top of the cake. Sprinkle top of cake with sprinkles.
    Sprinkles*
    adding heart sprinkles to heart on kae
  • Enjoy!
    Heart Cake close up

Video

Notes

Tips and Tricks
  • *If you don't have a heart pan see how to make a heart in the post above.
  • *I used strawberry cake mix for this but you can use any flavor, or even make one from scratch (here is my chocolate cake- just halve the recipe)!
  • *I used White Sanding Sugar and Valentine Heart Sprinkles
  • * This is my doctored cake box recipe which makes the boxed mix taste homemade however if you don’t have sour cream and heavy cream simply follow the recipe on the back of the box and bake accordingly.
  • * This recipe makes just enough to frost the cake with one layer of frosting- no crumb coat. If you want a smoother finish with a crumb coat you will need to double the frosting amount.
  • *You can also add a drop or two of strawberry flavoring to the pink frosting if you would like a fun extra flavor.

Nutrition

Calories: 408kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 88mg | Sodium: 280mg | Potassium: 44mg | Sugar: 45g | Vitamin A: 635IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 73mg | Iron: 1mg