Heart Surprise Cake
Updated
Updated
Amaze your friends and family this Valentine’s Day with this Heart Surprise Cake! Every fun and loving slice will have everyone asking, “How’d you do that?”
Serve up a slice of this cake with some chocolate milk and heart shaped marshmallows!
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Hidden Heart Surprise Cake
How. Cute. Is. This!? Even I was a little giddy when I sliced a knife through to reveal it turned out perfectly. Cake was solid and moist, hearts plain as day, and the color wasn’t compromised. I originally saw the idea with a pumpkin shape , but didn’t have a chance to make it for Thanksgiving. So why not Valentine’s Day?!
There’s a lot of waiting involved with the cooking, cooling, and chilling, making this surprise cake sort of a day-long project. But it is SO SO easy. And the actual active time you’re on your feet is minimal.
Give your friends and family a fun and loving surprise cake. They’ll think you’re a genius and be asking “how’d you do that??”
Ingredients Needed
You actually only need just a few ingredients to make this heart cake.
(Scroll below to the printable recipe card for details and measurements.)
- Betty Crocker Pound Cake mix – You’ll need 2 boxes, one to make the regular cake and one for the colored hearts. (See note below.)
- Unsalted butter – Adds moisture and richness.
- Eggs – Provides structure to the cakes.
- Milk – Adds necessary moisture to the cakes.
- Red food coloring – For the hearts.
- Icing – Powdered sugar, milk, butter, vanilla, and salt.
The concept can work with regular cake, but for this particular recipe, it needs to be a pound cake, since the pan used and cooking times are different.
I personally can’t vouch for this, but a few readers have said they used a homemade pound cake recipe with success.
I got a huge bucket of cookie cutters from Amazon a long time ago and the double heart was included. They are a decent selection of double heart cookie cutters now.
Sure! Just make sure it doesn’t exceed the height of the pan or you won’t be able to cut shapes from the sliced cake.
Because it is slightly UNDERBAKED the first time. Refrigerating firms the batter enough to cut it.
The hearts fuse together when baked, so they end up being throughout. Each slice will have one.
This is due to putting too much of the second pound cake batter in the pan before laying your pink hearts on top. As the batter cooks, it all rises. As per the instructions, just put a thin layer of batter – just slightly enough to cover the bottom of the pan – before you place the cut out hearts on top.
Did you cook it for 8-10 minutes LESS than what the box instructions were, or 8-10 minutes total? Many readers have made the mistake of only cooking it for 10 minutes. As per my recipe directions, the cake needs to cook for about 50 minutes.
Absolutely! This could definitely be customized for other holidays using different dyes and cookie cutters. Have fun with it!
Proper Storage
- To store: This pound cake loaf can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and again in foil or up to 6 days in the refrigerator.
- To freeze: Wrap baked and cooled pound cake in 1-2 layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil, and transfer to a freezer-safe bag. It can stay frozen for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before slicing and serving. We recommend freezing without the icing and then applying that fresh the day you’ll be serving.
More Valentine’s Day Recipes:
- Shirley Temple Drink
- Red Velvet Cake Truffles
- Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies
- Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries
- Easy Chocolate Mousse
I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!
Heart Surprise Cake
Ingredients
- 2 (16 ounce) boxes Betty Crocker Pound Cake mix
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided, softened
- 4 eggs, , divided
- 1 1/3 cups milk, , divided
- red food coloring
Vanilla Icing
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter, , melted
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9×5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
- Prepare your first pound cake: combine 1 box of cake mix, 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter, 2 eggs, and 2/3 cup milk in a large bowl. Whisk together with an electric mixer or by hand. Add in your food coloring until you reach the desired color.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes (about 10 minutes less than instructed on box.) Let cool, remove from pan and refrigerate for up to 4 hours. Cut cold cake into slices the thickness of your cookie cutter. Cut heart shapes from the slices. Set aside.
- Prepare your second box of pound cake mix the same as the first, except omit the food coloring. Coat a 9×5 loaf pan with cooking spray and pour just barely enough batter to cover the bottom. Align your heart cut-outs down the center, keeping them tightly together. Poor the remaining batter over the heart cut-outs in the pan, making sure to cover the sides and tops. (Careful the batter doesn’t overflow.) Bake according to the directions on the box, about 1 hour. Let cool when done.
- Meanwhile, prepare your icing. In a medium bowl, mix all of your ingredients together until combined and creamy. Add more powdered sugar if it appears too runny or more milk if it seems too stiff, until you reach the consistency you like.
- Remove baked and cooled pound cake from pan and top with icing. Let set; cut into slices and enjoy! Adorable, right!?NOTE: Please refer to the full article for FAQs.
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.
Did you make this? Leave a rating below!
thanks very much for our wonderful cake – we were very pleased with both how it looked and tasted!
I made this years ago and it was a huge hit. My question to you is what do you do with the cake remains after you’ve made your cut-outs? Just curious. I usually put them all in a zip lock and we nibble at it til its all gone.
Looking Yummy and delicious..! thank you so much, Andrea for sharing this beautiful post.
I made two of these with my kids for their class Valentine’s parties and they turned out great! Thank you for such a fun idea. I can’t wait to try this at other times of the year with different shapes.
Could I make the red cake and refrigerate overnight rather than 4 hours and make the finished cake in the morning? Or will that be too long? Thank you!
Hi Nancy! You can totally make it the night before. The reason it needs to chill is because it’s slightly uncooked. The refrigeration helps it firm up enough to cut.
I wonder if you can use a regular cake mix for this instead of a pound cake mix?
Made this yesterday (using a small snowflake cookie cutter and blue dye) as more of winter theme…sort of a trial run for Valentine’s Day. It was SO CUTE! Turned out perfectly, no issues. So I’m going to make it again for V-Day for my daughter’s class at school. Thank you for such a fun cake!
Yay! I love how customizable it is, right? Your daughter’s class is going to love it!
Couldn’t wait to try and make this for Valentine’s Day during our church’s coffee hour! All I can say is that it was a big hit! A few people asked me how I got the pink hearts in the middle and others exclaimed, “Oh! How cute is this?!”
I didn’t have the double heart like you had, so I used a small heart cookie cutter and made two single hearts placed side by side. Our pound cakes at church are cut in slices and then cut in half. So I wanted to make sure that when I cut them, there was a heart in each slice. It worked like a charm! Thank you for this recipe! It’s definitely a keeper!
The reactions from others are always so much fun! 2 single hearts and smaller slices is great!
I am making this for the second Valentines Day in a row. This year making three to share with family. I had only a few drops of red food color so I used a box of dry sugar free red jello instead (raspberry, cherry, and strawberry just happened to be in my pantry!) Also had about three drops of food color per cake. Colors came out wonderful!
Good to know!
Made this for my god-daughter and she LOVED it – so adorable!!
Totally adorable, definitely going to try this out for Valentine’s Day!
We’ve always wanted to try a peek a boo cake and you made it look simple to do! Thanks for inspiring us. We’re ready to give it a go! Trina and Tina
Love this! So clever, I made it for an early Christmas party with a tree cookie cutter dyed green – it was a huge hit!
So cute! Do you think this would work with corn bread? Thanks for your help!
Made this last night for Easter today! Used a bunny head instead of the hearts. It came out great!! Wish I can post a picture on here. A couple if people where shocked that I made the cake.
That’s awesome, Priscilla! I love how versatile this cake is – a bunny cut out for Easter is adorable.
My hearts floated to the top and stuck out. How do I keep them from raising up during the second baking?
Hi Sandy – this is part of the Q&A in the Notes section. Thanks!
made this for my daughter’s classroom party yesterday. big hit! thank you for this fun recipe! all the kids were blown away. i’m going to make it again for 4th of july with stars.
Any alternatives I can use to pound cake mix? I used the suggestion from smithersonjones to use pudding mix for the heart shapes. Couldn’t find pound cake mix here in Toronto at all. I put it in the oven for 15 minutes and I lwt it cool outside overnight. When I went in the morning to flip it it deflated on the sides :(
This is an amazing recipe and I cant wait to make it for the Valentine’s day. Can we bake this cake the night before and skip on the frosting?
Thanks,
So what do you do with the scaps from the first?
Make cake pops!
This is very cool. I made 3 of them today!
I made this with a different cookie cutter (to fit the occasion), so so cute!
Can I refrigerate the first part for over 4 hours? For example, make it one night, refrigerate over night, and then finish in the morning?
You can, but make certain you wrap it very tight, so it doesn’t dry out.
Love it. Thanks.
Lov this!
This is soooo cute! My kids would flip for this! I’ve seen things like this before, but this looks like a much easier (although time consuming) process. I would love to include this in a roundup of Valentine’s Day treats on my blog (with full credit going to you of course!)
Love this! Can’t wait to try it!
You guys can use box cake mix and change the texture to make it looke like a pound cake by adding a box vanilla pudding…and u can get different flavors of pudding a change your cake flavor
Ive done different versions of this but I’ve been trying to put names in this type of cake any ideas…I also use the scraps in a trifle of something …don’t wanna waste nothing
Recipe for peek a boo cake is so cute!!! Thanks
Round what size is the cookie cutter
The one I used is about 4 wide x 2 1/2 tall x 1/2 inch deep – yes, there are scraps left over, but as you can see from the picture, you don’t want to go too much wider. The depth doesn’t matter as much…you just want to make sure you cut the pink cake into slices the thickness of whatever cutter you choose, as instructed.
I made this last night…too cute! I have a tall, heart-shaped bread tube pan I got from Pampered Chef, so I made the pink heart center in it. Simply removed it from the heart-shaped pan after it baked and add it to the other pan. No need to slice, except I did trim the ends so it would be the right length. Love it!
Every year I make heart pancakes for my kids on Valentine’s Day. But this morning I surprised them with this cake. Best surprise ever!! I just might win “Mom Of The Year Award” LOL. Thank you!
My pink pan is baking in the oven now.So excited to make this for my daughters today !!!
My daughter’s class had their Valentine’s party yesterday because of the long weekend. I made this and it was a HUGE hit. Even the other teachers were coming into the room to see what the fuss was about. So adorable! Thank you for a great cake recipe!!
I can’t wait to try this….wondering if I can use the same idea and try it for easter. Im thinking confetti cake mix to make the easter eggs then a colored batter mix on top, kinda reversing it ,what do ya think?
This could definitely be customized for other holidays using different dyes and cookie cutters, but you must use pound cake. Regular cake mix will don’t work, sorry.
Milk or water right? The box says either. But is it better to use milk? (Found the cookie cutter by the way. So happy!)
Hi Hailey – milk! Definitely milk. And yay on the cutter!
Dang it. I used water. I’m waiting for it to cool now. Hope it still turns out. :/
I don’t *think* water will ruin it, but milk will give it a moisture texture. Hm. Let me know..
It wasn’t bad. Not too dry. But I didn’t cook it long enough the second time. So this time I flopped. I will attempt this recipe again though. Its too cute not too! Lol
Does anyone have a homemade pound cake recipe that have used with this that worked please?! Cannot find boxed pound cake mix anywhere here.
Hi, Veryculinary
LOVE THIS! but I don’t have the patience for pound cake so I am using white cake (dyed pink) and chocolate cake. There are no instructions about a loaf pan on the box (Philisbury White Cake Mix). What should I do?
Hi Jessica – this recipe only works with pound cake. If you use regular cake mix, it won’t come out properly. Sorry :/
This recipe looks fun to bake. I sure will give it a try. Thanks for sharing.
I made two of these tonight and they came out so good! I had to cook the first cake a little longer than you had suggested, but didnt fully cook it so it wouldnt be dry later, it came out very nice though everyone wanted seconds!
I love this cake. I made it for my brother´s birthday. I just want to pass along a couple of tips I got from a friend who bakes for a living :)
Freeze the cake before cutting the shapes. It is so smooth! Slice, cut and stack. The shapes stick together as they defrost a bit. Easier to place on the pan for the other batter.
Tip 2. Put a sleeve around the pan to keep it even at the top. The sleeve can be bought, but if you sew, you can make it from teflon fabric.
Great tips, thank you Carmen… will make tonight!
Thanks for the tips. Do you have to let the cake defrost a little first before you can get the knife through it? Does the fact that the middle is frozen affect the cooking time of the final cake?
I want to make thisssssss
Can this concept work with any cake mix?
No, sorry. It only works with Pound Cake. I have only used the Betty Crocker brand, but others have had success using a homemade version.
Oh okay thank you!
Could you cut the pound cake as one whole heart(like a loaf) omitting the cookie cutter, or does it need to be cut in slices?
Do you have a heart shaped loaf pan? I can’t see why not, but I can’t vouch for the results.
I have a similar cookie cutter from Wilton that I am going to try – very excited!
This looks awesome!! Where do I get the cookie cutter from though?
The cutter I used came in a huge bucket with many others that I bought on Amazon a long time ago. You don’t have to use that one, though. Just make sure you cut the pink cake into slices THE THICKNESS of whatever your cookie cutter is, as per the instructions.
Hi there, I cant seem the boxed pound cake where I live in Ontario… Do you think this would work with just a regular from scratch pound cake recipe ?
I personally couldn’t vouch for that, but an earlier reader had said she used a homemade pound cake recipe with success :)
Hi,can you freeze for a later day? Wish I thought of this when my kids were little!!!! Thanks
Hm. I can’t see why not. Although I wouldn’t ice it in advance… :)
John LOVES pound cake and I THINK Faith has this particular cookie cutter!! I may just surprise him on V-Day…Thanks for sharing, Amy :) May even do one with Shamrocks, for St. Patty’s day ;)