Happy Valentine's Day! Ready for a romantic night out filled with dinners, shows, drinks, cards, flowers? Well, after a wonderful meal, you may want to prove your love (to your partner or to yourself) by whipping up a cake. A heart-shaped cake. Nothing quite says love like homemade baked goods, right?
But you don't have a heart-shaped pan! And why would you? Besides Valentine's Day, you probably wouldn't get too much use out of it. So what do you do? Read up on the ways to make a heart-shaped cake without said pan on the Internet. This helpful step-by-step tutorial (with photos!) from Better Recipes shows just how to make that heart-shaped cake with an 8-inch round and 8-inch square baking pans. The recipe calls for a red cake, but obviously you can make whatever color you want. That special person in your life would truly appreciate your awesome baking skills (and of course how wonderful you are, etc.).
Valentine's Day Heart-Shaped Cake from Better Recipes
1 package cake mix (2-layer size) any flavor except angel food
1 cup cold milk
1 package (4-serving size) vanilla flavor instant pudding and pie filling
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 ounces) whipped topping, thawed
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring
Small candies or multicolored sprinkles
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake mix as directed on package. Divide batter evenly between greased and floured 8-inch round and 8-inch square baking pans. Bake as directed on package. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.
Pour milk into medium bowl. Add pudding mix and sugar. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes. Gently stir in whipped topping and food coloring.
Leave square cake whole; cut round cake in half. Assemble pieces on serving tray as shown in photographs below, using a small amount of pudding mixture to hold pieces together. Frost cake with remaining pudding mixture. Decorate with candies or sprinkles. Makes 12 to 16 servings.
Image via ©Envision/Corbis