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How to Make a Heart Cake with Pans You Already Have.

Maureen Abood

Feb 02, 2022

No heart pan? No problem. Here’s how to make a heart cake using pans you  already have. The finished cake can be as simple or as elaborate as you like. In any case, your cake will be spectacular!

This simple cake trick creates a heart cake as a base for frosting or decorating to your heart’s desire.

Even as a food blogger, there comes a moment where you just don’t want to add another short-season pan to your already-full cabinet. I met this moment a couple of years ago when I wanted to bake a number cake for my sister’s (big…) birthday. She was deep in the caregiving for Mom then, and we needed a moment of levity.

Enter birthday party. Which I knew she’d never agree to so we had to soft-surprise her. That is, she came in and we were all set up—there was no turning back as one friend after another arrived. We didn’t have to hide in the dark and jump up to make the surprise good fun.

I learned for my cake that I could cut out the shapes for the numbers and put them together like a puzzle (“2” and “9”. Not!). I made two layers, filled with cream, and lavished the top with an array of fruits and cookies of splashy color. Then came another significant birthday for my bonus-son Michael, and I went after it again in an all-chocolate version. I don’t know what I loved more, the cake or the chocolate covered Oreos on top. But who has to choose? You’ll find the guide I used for the cakes pinned to the pastry board on my Pinterest account.

I’ve wanted to do a heart cake in a similar way ever since then. I thought I would need to do some architect-level drawing and cutting on my cakes. It hit me as I played that this could be very, very simple, with one cut across a round cake, then arrange. I told my niece Victoria, a baker extraordinaire, that I have a heart cake trick to show her and you know what she said? Turn a square on the diamond, cut a round in half and line the halves up at the top edges of the square. That stinker already knew! You start to realize there are no new recipes…

Here you go: how to make a heart cake with pans you already have!  And if you don’t, these are basics you’ll be happy to have on hand all year long.

STEP 1:

Bake 1 8″ square and 1 8″ round. A standard cake mix works fine.

Step 2.

Set the square cake on the diagnal on a cake board or overturned sheet pan covered in foil:

Step 3:

Cut the 8″ round in half.

Step 4:

Set the halves on each of the top sides of the square.

Voila! A heart cake to be frosted however you see fit!