valentine's cakes

 

Valentine's Day is coming soon. And since this year, Valentine's Day also happens to be moving day for me, I thought I would get ahead of the game and post my holiday treats this week. 

I recently picked up a silicone baking mold that has 12 small heart shapes in it. ( this one ) I decided the perfect thing to make would be miniature heart-shaped cakes. You can make your own batter or make life easier and just use a mix- follow the instructions on the box. Place your mold on a baking sheet, mist with cooking spray, and fill the cavities just under halfway. 

Bake for 10 minutes. Let the mold sit on a cooling rack for a few minutes before you try to remove the cakes. If you sprayed your mold, and didn't overfill it, they should come out easily. 

 

Let the cakes finish cooling on the rack, refill the mold, and repeat. 1 box of cake mix will make you several dozen mini cakes, so you may want to use half the batter for regular sized cupcakes or a 9" round cake. Or you may want to buy 2 molds so you can bake more efficiently.

They sure do come out cute though! 

Soon you will have a small army of little heart cakes...

 

The ones on the right have cinnamon red hots mixed into the batter.

Once you have your heart cakes baked and cooled, it's time to decorate. You can mix up some

buttercream icing like I did, or just use canned stuff. (I'll show you how to make icing in a later post, 

but you should just search online for a recipe because it's SUPER easy to make. I promise.)

You can decorate your cakes however you like. Use whatever sprinkles and decorations you have on hand. You can frost them and use icing writers to personalize a Valentine's message...

Or if you are like me and have bad icing-writing, you can just make shapes.

OR you can bust open a bag or two of candy melts

Place them in a microwave-safe container and heat for 30-second intervals, stirring between. 

You can add candy coloring if you like (just make sure it's candy coloring), 

and if the candy starts to dry out just add some shortening and stir.

 

Don't ask me how I made this shade of purple. I'm not quite sure. But I used it anyway...

Take some of your heart cakes and place them on a cooling rack which has been placed over a baking

sheet or pan. Then, drizzle the candy coating over the cakes, and smooth out with the spoon.

These are the cakes with the cinnamon hots. 

Don't worry if your coating isn't perfectly smooth, it's still going to taste good.

For another variation, try slicing the cakes in half horizontally.

 

Spread a layer of icing on the bottom half, then reassemble.

Cover with candy melts like the other cakes. You can also add sprinkles while the candy is drying.

 

It's a lot of work, but worth it. 

Hard candy shell, soft spongy cake, and sweet creamy frosting.

Cake with frosting is good...

but, it's Valentine's Day! Why not have candy too?