A high altitude recipe for a mini almond poppy seed cake decorated with a pink buttercream heart for Valentine’s Day. This mini Valentines cake is so cute and fun to decorate, in a small size that’s just enough for 2-4 people.
You might also love these high altitude mini cakes in flavors like strawberry cake, lemon coconut, and cinnamon sugar.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Small Size. High altitude bakers love my mini cake recipes, and this mini Valentine’s day cake is the perfect petite dessert for the holiday. This little cake yields four slices, so it’s just enough for a few people to share.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
Soft and Moist. The recipe for today’s cake is the same as my mini almond poppy seed cake, which is the most delicious little cake you’ll ever taste.
Decorating Video. Be sure to see the video in the recipe card below to see how I decorated this cute little pink heart cake.
The Decorating
- Take the remaining buttercream and tint it a deep pink color, using a few drops of “super red”, as well as a drop or two of “warm brown”.
- Fit a disposable piping bag with tip 1M and fill with buttercream. Pipe a heart on one side of the cake (as demonstrated in the video). Since this is such a small cake, you might feel like tip 1M is too big for the ruffly heart, so a smaller star tip will also work well.
- Fit a disposable piping bag with a coupler and tip 18. Pipe a small “shell” border around the top and bottom edges of the cake.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
For a pure white color in the base coat of buttercream, you can replace half the butter with vegetable shortening. If using just butter, you can offset the natural yellow color with a few drops of “bright white” gel food coloring. A very small drop of “violet” gel food coloring can also help to neutralize and whiten the yellow.
I used “super red” and “warm brown” gel food coloring.
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High Altitude Mini Valentine’s Day Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 4-inch Round Cake Pans (x2) (or two 6-inch round cake pans)
- Electric Mixer (Stand or Hand-Held)
- Disposable Piping Bags (plus tips 1M and 18)
Ingredients
Cake
- ¾ cup cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 6 tbsp granulated sugar
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ tsp poppy seeds
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 5 tbsp whole milk
- 1 large egg
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
Buttercream
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp meringue powder, optional
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- ¼ tsp poppy seeds
- gel food coloring ("super red" and "warm brown")
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the insides of two 4-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds.
- Separately, whisk together the melted butter, oil, milk, egg, vanilla and almond extracts.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk until combined. Divide the batter between the pans.
- Bake the cakes for about 20-22 minutes, until the centers of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the sides of the cakes, then turn them out of the pans. Let cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- Using an electric mixer (either stand or hand-held), beat the butter for one minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, beat in the powdered sugar, meringue powder, salt, vanilla and almond extracts, mixing until combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 4-5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
- If needed, slice a small portion of the domed top off the cakes before frosting.
- Stack and frost the cakes with the buttercream, then chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Decorating
- Take the remaining buttercream and tint it a deep pink color, using a few drops of "super red", as well as a drop or two of "warm brown".
- Fit a disposable piping bag with tip 1M and fill with buttercream. Pipe a heart on one side of the cake (as demonstrated in the video).
- Fit a disposable piping bag with a coupler and tip 18. Pipe a small "shell" border around the top and bottom edges of the cake.
Video
Notes
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