So, you don’t have a heart shaped cake pan yet you want to make a Valentine’s heart cake? No Worries! You don’t need to run out and buy one if you have a 8″ or 9″ square and round cake pan in your cupboard. Making a cut up cake is so easy!

Before they even had cake pans in all the cute shapes they do nowadays, our mom’s and grandma’s used to make cut up cakes. Making a stencil out of waxed paper to make sure you have the appropriate size pans to cut your design out of is the key. So, maybe back then there was some waste. That gave us kids a purpose to help…get rid of those unwanted scraps!

If you can design it, you can make it. I have quite the assortment of cake decorating tips by Wilton’s to help me make hair, grass, stars and all other shapes and strands of frosting. Wilton makes a great variety of decorating tips and tubes. I use mine for every holiday and birthday. Never again do I buy a store bought cake when I can make it myself.

If you’re like me, and happy to call an end to the Valentine’s Day celebrations when you successfully send your kids out the door with their class Valentines in hand, then this easy peasy heart-shaped cake you can make the night before, or even when you get home from work, will make you look like a Valentine’s Day Mom superhero.

A heart shaped cake

Once you have all the ingredients at hand and the pans are in hand, we can proceed to get baking!

Bake cake mix accordingly

Simply mix your favourite cake mix according to package directions and pour half into a circular pan and half into a square pan.

After they are cooled

Once cooled, if you happen to have a cake saw (I don’t actually know the technical term, but you can get them in the cake decorating aisle of your local craft store), even out the tops of your cakes. If you don’t happen to have a cake saw, just use a bread cutting knife to even out any lumps and bumps, so both cake sheets are reasonably at the same level.

Using the round cake

Then cut your circle cake in half and shape the edges, if required. This will be the upper lobes of your heart shaped cake.

Placement of cakes

Then place one half on either side of the square cake, like so. Now it’s resembling a heart shaped cake.

Frosting

Now, ice and decorate as desired. We use regular store-bought vanilla icing with a few drops of red food colouring to make pink icing. being an avid baker, I like to use the powered sugar, shortening, milk and vanilla to make my frosting. rarely do I buy store bought because I can make it so much cheaper and in my opinion, so much better!

Decorate

Then I let the kids decorate with sprinkles…sometimes. I really like to decorate with detail and preciseness. Using my Wilton decorating tips I can get somewhat fancy with less mess then what the kids can do. But, to make them a part of this project, give them a butter knife or spoon and use the backside of for easier frosting.

Make any flavor you want!

Make sure you make the flavor they like best. if it’s for Valentine’s Day, you may want to go with a pink strawberry or cherry chip flavor.

Tip when frosting

When you begin frosting, sometimes the top of the cake will pull away with the frosting utensil. I find it’s best to try and use a frosting color to match the cake when at all possible. helps hide my mistakes better.

Decoration ideas

There is really no wrong way to decorate your heart shaped cake. It’s your cake. Use your imagination and let the colors and decorations be endless!