Heart Shaped Chocolate Layer Cake
Moist and rich dark chocolate cake, assembled in the shape of a heart, frosted with chocolate buttercream and decorated with piped rosettes and hydrangea flowers.
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Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- 6-inch Round Cake Pans (x2)
- 6-inch Square Cake Pans (x2)
- 16-inch Disposable Piping Bag (plus tip 1M)
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Buttercream
- 1 recipe Chocolate Cake + Chocolate Buttercream
Vanilla Buttercream
- 2x recipe Vanilla Buttercream
- gel food coloring "super red" + "warm brown"
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the insides of two 6-inch square cake pans and two 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- Make the chocolate cake batter as instructed.
- Divide the batter between the four cake pans. Since the square pans have a little more volume capacity than the round pans, you should add slightly more batter to the square pans, so that all the baked cakes are of equal heights.
- Bake the cakes for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted comes out clean.
- Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edges, turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack, and cool completely before assembling and frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream
- Make the chocolate buttercream.
- Cover the bowl and set aside until needed.
Vanilla Buttercream
- Divide the buttercream between four bowls. Keep one bowl white, and tint the other three various shades of pink, in light, medium and dark, using the "super red" gel food coloring. A few drops of "warm brown" gives the pink color a richer hue.
Assembly and Decorating
- Set one of the square cakes on a cake stand or cake plate with a 9-10 inch diameter. Cut one of the round cakes in half, and arrange the "half moons" on two sides of the square to form a heart.
- Frost the top of the first layer of cake with the chocolate buttercream.
- Arrange the second square and round cakes on top to form the second layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake with a thin "crumb coat" of chocolate buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for 15-30 minutes, then frost the sides of the cake with a final coat of chocolate buttercream, using a bench scraper to smooth out the sides. You will likely have some leftover chocolate buttercream for another project.
- Fit a disposable 16-inch piping bag with tip 1M. Scoop the three shades of pink buttercream into the bag, alternating the colors so they swirl together a bit.
- Pipe rosettes and drop flowers on top of the cake, leaving a few gaps here and there. Add the white buttercream to the piping bag, and finish piping drop flowers to fill in any gaps.
Video
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