Heart-Shaped Valentine Cakes filled with White Chocolate Buttercream

Make Valentine’s Day even sweeter with these adorable and delicious heart cakes filled with a generous layer of white chocolate buttercream.

Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not, there is always a good reason to bake some lovely heart-shaped desserts or any other pretty dessert served in individual portions. Over the past few years I shared on the blog the beautiful two-tone chocolate tartlets, the Swedish vanilla hearts, the classic but mandatory molten chocolate lava cakes, the heavenly chocolate pots de crème (seriously to die for!), and even the strawberry French toasts and the vegan pink beet pancakes that are perfect for breakfast. And now you have these mini moist Valentine cake too. So if you’re looking for some inspiration for Valentine’s Day, you might find something you like here (yes I know, it can be hard to choose though)!

This year, my special Valentine dessert for you is actually a plant based recipe. Yes, you heard me well, there are veggies in this dessert. How? Where? You can’t see anything, right? I give you a hint: the veggies here bring some additional sweetness to the cake without changing its taste, and they are also responsible for a lovely red velvet color that is unfortunately hardly visible on the pictures here due to too much light entering the room where I was shooting the recipe (but I promise that in real life you can see the red color of the cakes). So have you guessed which veggie we are talking about now? The main ingredient of these adorable mini cakes is actually beet here!

I love beets as they are a wonderful sweet red ingredient that you can combine in many different recipes, whether they are sweet or savory (check all my recipes involving beets on the blog here – you’ll even find a pizza!). In my red or pink-colored recipe I always try to avoid artificial food colorant, and most of the time beet plays the game pretty well instead. That’s how they ended up once again in this Valentine’s Day recipe.

I actually used the almost exact same cakes on the blog before with my beetroot cake with vanilla frosting. I say “almost” because in the hearts, I added one tablespoon of cocoa powder that I didn’t use in the previous recipe. The cocoa powder brings a subtle chocolate taste that enhances the sweetness of the cake, but note here that it is totally optional and the recipe works perfectly without the cocoa – you will instead have a delicious brown sugar flavor thanks to the use of muscovado sugar. If you ask me which one I prefer, I would say without the cocoa powder, although there is not such a big difference ; it is totally up to you.

For the beet cake, I used here a large 12×8 inches pan, in which I cut 10 to 12 medium-sized hearts using a cookie cutter (you can get more hearts depending on the size of your cookie-cutter). Another option would be to use a heart-shaped pan such as this one you can find on Amazon for $10 only. You still have a little time ahead to order it before Valentine’s Day if you want. Both options works equally well ; the only difference is that you won’t have leftovers if you use a heart-shaped pan, and you can probably make one or two more hearts.

I then sliced the hearts in two and garnished the inside with a generous layer of white chocolate buttercream – a very easy recipe that is perfectly soft, creamy and deliciously sweetened. If you blind taste the heart-shaped sandwich cake, you might have the feeling you’re eating a red velvet cupcake. For a final touch, drizzle some melted white chocolate over the hearts, and add a delicate raspberry on top. You’ve got here the perfect dreamy dessert for your Valentine!

Heart-Shaped Valentine Cakes filled with White Chocolate Buttercream

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• Author: Delphine Fortin
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
• Yield: 10-12 servings 1x
• Category: Desserts
• Cuisine: American recipes

Make Valentine’s Day even sweeter with these adorable and delicious heart cakes filled with a generous layer of white chocolate buttercream.

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Ingredients

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For the cake:

• 3 large beetroots
• ¾ cup (17,5 cl) rapeseed oil
• ½ cup (80g) dark muscovado sugar
• ⅔ cup (135g) caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1¼ cup (150g) cups flour
• 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder (optional)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt

For the white chocolate buttercream:

• 2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
• 12 ounces (170g) white chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 cup (125g) confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For decoration:

• 1/3 cup (60g) white chocolate, melted
• Fresh raspberries

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Peel and grate the beets finely, and squeeze them lightly.
2. Whisk the oil with muscovado- and raw sugar a few minutes in a bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients and stir them into the weit mixture along with the beets.
4. Pour the batter into a greased and floured form, about 12×8 inch (30×22 cm)*, and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. When a stick or a toothpick comes out clean, the cake is ready. Let cool completely.
5. In the meantime, prepare the white chocolate buttercream: in a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Beat in the melted white chocolate. Add the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla and beat at low speed, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy. Reserve.
6. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter*, cut the cake into about 10-12 hearts.
7. Cut the hearts in half, on the diagonal.
8. Pipe or spoon the white chocolate buttercream on one half, top with the other half and keep in the fridge until you melt the white chocolate.
9. In a bain marie, melt the white chocolate until runny. Drizzle it over the cakes with a fork, and top with a raspberry on each heart.

Notes

* Instead of using a regular baking pan and a cookie cutter, you can use a heart-shaped mold pan (read my article above for more information about it).

Cakes, Chocolate, Muffins, Valentine's Day

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