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Make a simple, luscious buttercream and decorate with abandon to create this (easy!) Valentine Spectacular Cake. Click over to find pure rose water and to get the trick for how make a heart cake with pans you already have.
Our simple heart cake trick creates a heart cake as a base for gorgeous pink raspberry buttercream (my Mom’s Chocolate Buttercream is also divine here). Leave it beautifully right there or gild the lily with fruit, macarons, meringue cookies, ruby chocolate pieces, chocolate covered Oreos . . . go exploring for your look.
Make a heart cake:
The cake is spectacular, yet the ease of it is even more spectacular! Use a cake mix for standard square and round 8-inch pans, one of each. Double it up to make two layers filled with buttercream or pastry cream/filling, or a combo, or do as I did with one simple frosted layer.
Homemade buttercream is THE key to a great cake of any origin (boxed, purchased, scratch). Very soft butter, confectioner’s sugar, a little milk and a little flavoring. And that is all.
Make Raspberry Buttercream:
If you have not yet discovered the delight of flavoring frostings and glazes with freeze-dried fruit powder, the time is now! These are readily available at Whole Foods, just pulverize to a powder in the food processor (love the mini-prep processor for this) or a mortar and pestle.
The benefit of the fruit powder is tons of real fruit flavor and color without the liquid that doesn’t blend well into the buttercream.
Decorate with abandon (or not!):
For this cake, I like to frost just the top of the cake, not the sides. This allows the chocolate (or any flavor) cake to be visible around the sides. Leave a peek of cake around the edges at the top as well, for a border-look. Frost just to about 1/2 inch from the edge.
To cut the cake, slice across and cut rectangular or square pieces from the row.
If making ahead, frosting the cake is fine–then refrigerate or freeeze. Hold off decorating the cake until just before serving. The fruit can seep liquid and the macarons will go soft in the icing over time.
Easy! Spectacular!
(Easy!) Valentine Spectacular Cake
Ingredients
- 2 8-inch chocolate cakes, one square and one round
- 4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, very softened
- 1/2 cup freeze-dried raspberries
- 3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
- 1-2 tablespoons milk, room temperature (any fat percentage)
- 1 teaspoon rose water
- Decorations, such as macarons, a variety of berries, ruby chocolate, nonpereils, meringues
Instructions
- Make a heart cake out of the two 8-inch cakes, setting the square cake on the diagonal and cutting the round cake in half. Place the round halves at the top of each side of the square diamond.
- Pulverize the freeze dried raspberries in a food processor (mini-prep works great), or in a mortar and pestle. Sift out the seeds.
- Make the buttercream by creaming the butter together with the raspberry powder until well-blended, using a mixer or beating by hand. Add the confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, along with the milk and rose water to moisten as you go. Beat until well-blended.
- Frost the top of the cake with the buttercream, leaving about 1/2-inch around the perimeter. There may be some frosting leftover; I'm sure you'll find a use for it! It freezes great, just thaw, stir, and use (or soften in 10-second increments in the microwave).
- Same day as serving, decorate the top of the cake following the heart shape wiith macarons, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, halved strawberries, ruby chocolate, nonpereils, meringue cookies.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
