What better way to surprise your valentine than with a homemade cake? This is the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert to let your special someone know just how much they’ve captured your heart. Cutting into the rich cream cheese frosting reveals a decadent red velvet cake for the ultimate cherry on top of your romantic dinner for two. The best part of this recipe? We use a simple hack to create this cake shape—no special pan needed!
The cake. We used our best-ever red velvet cake recipe, but your options don't stop there. Feel free to swap it out for our classic chocolate or strawberry if that's more your thing! Or, if you're in a hurry, boxed cake mix will work just as well in this recipe. Airtight Tobacco Tin
The frosting. One of our favorite components of this cake? The homemade cream cheese frosting. If you prefer, you can swap it out for buttercream frosting, but we think it’s the perfect pairing to the decadent red velvet cake.
How to make a heart-shaped cake: No special cake pan needed in this recipe! All you need is a square and round cake pan to create your adorable heart-shaped cake. You’ll use your pans to make two separate cakes: a circle and a square. After cooling, you’re going to cut your round cake down the center before placing on the sides of your square cake to make a heart. Need a bit more help? Follow our video above and photos below for step-by-step instructions!
Rather not bake two cakes? Get a heart-shaped cake pan instead!
Decorating. We completed our cake with pink, red and gold sprinkles to make for an extra-festive presentation, but feel free to get creative! Dye your frosting with food coloring if you’d prefer to have a red or pink heart, switch up your sprinkles, or even spell out a V-Day message with candy on top for your sweetheart.
Made this? Let us know how it went in the comments below!
(8-oz.) block cream cheese, softened
Colorful sprinkles, for serving (optional)
Lena Abraham is a freelance contributor with Delish, and was formerly Senior Food Editor, where she developed and styled recipes for video and photo, and also stayed on top of current food trends. She’s been working in the food industry for over 10 years, and will argue that the best fish tacos in the world are made in New York. Don’t @ her.
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