When my guy friend invited me to his Valentine’s birthday celebration and asked me to make a cake, I got to work.
How can I make a heart-shaped cake that isn’t totally girly, for my guy friend whose birthday falls on valentines day??
Challenge accepted!
Gender aside, this cake design (if I do say so myself) is just really fun.
And honestly, it was fairly simple to make. But make no mistake, you do need to prepare a little bit in advance – because odds are you won’t exactly have these things lying around your house.
I specifically needed to make a SMALL 4-inch three-layer cake, which only feeds about 6-8 people. My flavor of choice was a vanilla cake with raspberry compote. I’ll list out the ingredients if you choose to follow it, but feel free to bake whatever kind of cake you want!
I am NOT a food blogger. BUT, I did use to work at a bakery (we made everything from scratch).. so I feel like I have some credibility here. I’m not going to give you step-by-step photos and videos, but I am going to try to spell it out as simply as possible.
Tools You Need:
Basic Cake Decorating Kit (piping bags, tips, and tip converter)
1 tiny shooter bottle of Vodka or Tequila
Optional: Cake Letter Molds or fun candles
Resources for Nervous Bakers & Beginners (v helpful)
These are all tiktoks, but they are really helpful!
This Vintage Heart Cake TikTok
Baking the Cake
I adapted Sally’s Baking Addiction vanilla cake recipe to fit a 9×13 sheet pan.
Ingredients
Dry
1 cup of cake flour (or regular flour, take out 2 tbs and add 2 tbs of corn starch)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Wet
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk (OR 1/2 cup of regular milk and a splash of vinegar or lemon juice)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Vanilla Cake Instructions
Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together.
In a separate bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together really well. Beat in the egg + vanilla, then the milk.
Be careful not to overmix at this point. It’s a good sign if the batter actually looks slightly curdled! This is a result of the acidity from the buttermilk or vinegar (whichever you used).
Line a 9×13 baking sheet with parchment paper and coat with a non-stick spray.
Spread the batter evenly really well across the baking sheet. It’s OK if it looks thin! The important thing is making it even.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 12-14 minutes. Can take up to 16 minutes to bake. Try a toothpick or knife in the center to see if it comes out clean.
While the cake is baking…
As I said, I made a delicious vanilla cake with raspberry compote. If you want to make that.. continue reading! If you’re going your own way with the flavor, you can skip.
While the cake is baking, I made my filling.
I like to follow Amycakes bakery recipe for a raspberry compote here, which I adapted for my 4-inch cake.
Cooked down 4oz of frozen raspberries in a non-stick skillet over medium heat on the stovetop. Once they start to get gooey, mix in 1 TBS cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, and a little less than 1 TBS of lemon juice.
Break the chunks up with a spoon while cooking.
This should only take about 7-9 minutes in total. Easy Peasy!
While the Cake is Cooling
Your cake needs to be completely cooled before you decorate any part of it.
For this cake, I waited a little over an hour before decorating.
Make Your Buttercream
I have tried a couple of different buttercream recipes for decorating, and this one by far held up the best. I used the Sally’s Baking Addiction vanilla buttercream recipe and adapted it to fit my 4-inch cake.
With heart-shaped cakes, I would avoid buttercream with cream cheese in it because it can get droopy. You also typically need extra buttercream due to the excessive decor heart shapes require.
Buttercream Ingredients (for a 4inch Heart Cake)
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 – cups of powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbs milk
pinch of salt
First, beat the butter well. Then, gradually add everything else.
Buttercream is best at room temperature. But after mixing, I like to pop it in the fridge for just about 5 minutes.
For decorating heart-shaped cakes, you need buttercream that is room temperature and spreadible but you also need it to stiffen and not droop. So, temperature, I find, is important.
Layering Your Heart-Shaped Cake
With a 4-inch cut-out heart, I align the heart to two opposite corners of the sheet pan and cut it out.
Before stacking your layers, try your best to level your layers with a serrated knife. This means just cut the chunky tops off the cake so that it’s all one level. Otherwise, your cake can look a little bulky once finished.
Honestly, I find leveling hard to do, and I get nervous. Just try not to break the cake, and if you can get a little off the top – that’s fine. See this video for how to level cakes.
When you have 1 layer cut, take your raspberry compote and spread it thinly. Leave room on the outer edges of the layer.
Compote can dangerously weigh down a cake. So spread it as you would on toast. Thinly.
Put a few spoonfuls of buttercream in an icing bag and outline the layer around the compote. So you should have an outer layer of icing and an inner layer of compote.
Next, take your heart-shaped cutout and try your best to build a heart within it from the leftover pieces on the sheet pan. The “crappy looking heart” will be the middle of your 3 layers. This is always the hardest part. Spread the compote in the middle and outline it with icing as you did before.
Next, add your good heart that you cut from the other corner of the pan.
So your good hearts should be the top and bottom of the layered cake. Your crappy make-shift heart in the middle.
You don’t add compote to the top part.
How to Make it DISCO!
This is what you’ve been waiting for!! THIS is the fun part.
With your buttercream, get your black food coloring and add in about 2-4 drops. Until you get a nice grey color.
Add your crumb coat. Check out this video to help.
But, it’s basically a thin layer of icing all around your cake.
Pop it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
Add another coat of grey buttercream covering your cake. Try to make it as smooth as you can! Always so hard for me.
Add all of your grey buttercream into a piping bag and begin decorating. Using a piping converter is key here, so you can experiment with different styles.
This short tiktok is great to watch for decorating tips.
Once you’re happy with the way it looks, make your Chrome mixture.
You’ll need a GOOD spray bottle. Add in 1/4 tsp of edible lustre and 1/2 tsp of vodka.
These measurements may be something you need to experiment with (test it on a paper towel first) but shoot for a 1 part luster and 2 parts vodka ratio as guidance. You don’t need very much at all.
Lemon juice can also be used as a substitute for alcohol. But I think vodka or tequila is best.
Spritz your cake until it turns a magical silver chrome color! See this video for an idea of what it should look like.
Stick your cake in the fridge for a couple of hours, so the alcohol will evaporate.
Add your disco balls on top and serve at room temperature!
How to add writing to your finished cake
If you need to add lettering to your cake, I refuse to write because I just know I’m not that skilled.
I like to melt a little bit of white chocolate chips and a splash of milk in the microwave, and pour them into these letter molds and stick them in the freezer for 1-2 hours.
You can also buy some nice letter cake toppers online.
Or for this cake, I think you can just fill the whole top with little disco balls and totally get away with it.
I hope this was more helpful than confusing. If you have the right tools, it’s easier than it looks!
Enjoy your heart-shaped disco ball cake!!
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