Valentine’s Day Heart Cake

On February 14, we celebrate Valentine’s Day.  It is a day for lovers and sweethearts, but also a fun day for children and family.  Valentine’s Day traditions abound. We exchange cards and small gifts, chocolate, candy, jewelry, and flowers.

Since I like to bake, my favorite Valentine’s Day endeavor is preparing a heart-shaped cake.  Below is a recipe for a heart cake iced with red fondant. If you’ve never worked with fondant before, I encourage you to try it.  It is very easy to work with and it produces a professional quality cake that will delight your Valentine. Happy Valentine’s Day!

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour the two heart-shaped baking pans.

To prepare the cake batter–follow the directions on the Duncan Hines cake mix box.

Divide the batter evenly into the two heart-shaped pans.

Bake for approximately 25 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean.

Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then invert onto wire rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the icing:

Remove about 1 pound of red fondant from container.  Place in microwave briefly to soften for about 10 seconds at level 3 per instructions on container.  If necessary, place in microwave for another 10 seconds to make the fondant pliable.

Place red fondant on a wooden or plastic board where you can roll it out with a rolling pin and roll the fondant to a circle which is approximately 14 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.

If the fondant becomes sticky, sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar on the board.

Gently lift up the fondant and place it over the heart cake.  It should take on the shape of the cake.  Trim the excess fondant from the bottom of the cake.

You can repeat this process with the second heart cake or freeze it for future use.

Essex Fells Magazine

February 2012