How to Make a Heart Shaped Cake (Without a Heart Pan)

Learn How to Make a Heart-Shaped Cake and make this Sweetheart Chocolate Layer Cake! You won't need a special pan or unusual tools to make this heart shape - I've included a free template! The cake is perfect for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and any other special occasion where you want to show love!

Jump to:

• Heart-Shaped Cake
• Tools Needed
• How to Bake a Chocolate Sheet Cake
• How to Make Vanilla Buttercream
• How to Make Ganache
• How to Cut a Heart Shaped Cake
• Decorating a Heart Cake
• Pro Tips
• More Delicious Recipes
• Recipe
• How to Bake a Chocolate Sheet Cake
• How to Make Vanilla Buttercream
• How to Make Ganache
• How to Cut a Heart Shaped Cake
• Decorating a Heart Cake

Heart-Shaped Cake

You don't need a heart-shaped pan to make a beautiful heart cake. You just need a few common tools, a sheet cake pan, and the simple recipe. I have below. It's not a special heart cake recipe but a regular one. 

I'm also providing a free template for the hearts and a tutorial so you'll have everything you need to learn How to Make a Heart Shaped Cake without having a special cake pan.

Tools Needed

• Heart Template printed on a normal sheet of paper
• 1 (9x13) Cake Pan to bake the cake
• Serrated Knife
• Cake boards
• Scissors
• Cooling Rack
• Large Baking Sheet 
• Small Offset Spatula
• Cake Lifter
• Piping Bag and Tips to decorate
• Electric Hand Mixer

Ingredients

• (1) 9x13 Sheet Cake - I baked a chocolate cake but any flavor will work!
• 2 Cups Chocolate Ganache
• 2 Cups Vanilla Buttercream or Cream Cheese Frosting
• Red Food Coloring -  Americolor Tulip Red is my favorite!

I'm listing the recipes I used below but you can use any recipes that work for you!

Chocolate Cake Ingredients

• Chocolate Cake Mix
• Eggs
• Oil
• Water
• Sour Cream
• Chocolate Pudding Mix (dry mix - do not make the pudding)
• Vanilla Extract

Vanilla Frosting Ingredients

• Butter
• Shortening
• Vanilla Extract
• Milk
• Salt
• Powdered Sugar

Ganache Ingredients

• Heavy Whipping Cream
• Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Find the complete recipe with ingredients measurements in the recipe card below.

How to Bake a Chocolate Sheet Cake

You can bake any flavor of cake that you like - I chose chocolate 🙂

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F.
2. Prepare a 9x13 sheet pan by spraying with cake release or painting with cake goop. You could also line your pan with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, mix together all cake ingredients on medium speed until well-incorporated. Do not overmix - you do not want a lot of extra air in your batter.
4. Pour the cake batter into your prepared pan.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then flip it out onto a cooling rack to completely cooled to room temperature.

How to Make Vanilla Buttercream

This is my go-to recipe for frosting but again, you can use any flavor you like. Another popular flavor for me is cream cheese frosting.

1. In a large bowl, use a hand mixer on medium speed to cream together the butter, shortening and vanilla until smooth.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of milk, the salt, and half the powdered sugar and mix just until combined.
3. On low speed, gradually add the other half of the sugar. Scrape down the bowl as needed and add more milk if needed to get the desired consistency.
4. Add a few drops of red food coloring and mix thoroughly. Let the color develop while you work on the cake.

How to Make Ganache

1. Pour the heavy cream into a microwave-safe bowl and heat it for 1 minute. Check to see if it's steaming. If not heat it again in 30-second increments until it's steamy hot. 
2. Pour the chocolate chips into a second bowl (a medium glass bowl is best). Pour the steaming cream over the chocolate chips making sure all chips are covered.
3. Let it sit for 5 minutes without stirring
4. Gently stir or whisk the cream and chocolate chips until it becomes shiny and smooth. If you still have any bits of chocolate not melted, return it to the microwave for 15 seconds and mix again.

How to Cut a Heart Shaped Cake

You don't have to have a novelty cake pan to make a pretty cake into the shape of the heart. 

1. Print two copies of the heart template on 8.5x11 sheets of paper and cut them out.
2. Place the cake on a large cutting board.
3. Lay the hearts on the baked sheet cake. 
4. Using a serrated knife, cut out the hearts being careful to hold the knife straight up and down so the sides of the cake are perfectly straight. Cut cake carefully, especially the pointed part of the heart, so that you don't tear it.
5. Using the same template, use your scissors to cut an 8-inch round cake board to the same heart shape.This will serve as a cardboard base for your cake.

Decorating a Heart Cake

1. Place one layer of the heart cake on the cake board. Spread a thin layer of buttercream over it.
2. Place the second layer on top of the cake. Make sure the top cake lines up with the first cake layer and trim any places where it's not even. The easiest way is to line up the pointed bottom of the cake then make sure the curved pieces of the heart are aligned.
3. Crumb coat the entire cake with the vanilla buttercream and chill for at least 20 minutes - up to an hour if possible.
4. Place the chilled cake on a wire rack. Immediately pour the warm ganache over the frosted cake. Pour enough that it spills over the side of the cake. 
5. Smooth the ganache with a cake spatula until the top of the cake and the sides are covered with ganache. **If your ganache has firmed up since making it, place it in the microwave in 15-second increments, stirring in between, until it's pourable. You want the top edge of the cake to have smoothed, sharp edges.
6. Allow it to set up for at least 10 minutes, then move it to your final cake board.
7. Chill the remaining ganache until firm.

1. Using a star tip, decorate the top of the heart with red frosting swirls. I used a Wilton tip #825.
2. After the ganache is chilled and firm, use your hand mixer to whip it into pipeable stiff, fluffy frosting.
3. Use a piping bag and star tip (I used Wilton #822) to pipe a large shell border around the bottom of the heart. Add rosettes and more stars to fill in the heart decorations on the top surface of the cake.
4. Add gold sprinkles and gold pearls if you want to finish up the design!

Pro Tips

• If you don't have a sheet pan or a heart-shaped cake pan, you can also cut hearts from with round cakes baked in round cake pans. I recommend at least 8-inch cake pans. You may have to adjust the size of your hearts depending on the size of your pans. The same goes for using a square pan.
• Be sure to 
• The cake was presented on a gold cake board and I accented with gold sugar pearls, gold sixlets, and gold stars.
• If you need or want chocolate frosting to decorate with instead of the whipped ganache, you can add cocoa powder to the vanilla buttercream to make chocolate buttercream. 

More Delicious Recipes

• Red Velvet Cake with Ganache and Chocolate Dipped Strawberries {Ganache Recipe}
• Happy Valentine's Day: A Simple Valentines Sheet Cake
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• Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cake with Heath Bar Toffee Chips
• 13+ Valentine's Cakes & Party Ideas

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