Another week, another cake in my year of cake with this strawberry vanilla layer heart cake. With valentine’s day coming up soon I thought it would be fun to try and make a heart shaped cake but I don’t have a heart shaped cake tin, so I turned round cakes into a heart shape cake!
This cake gave me 5 year old birthday vibes! You can find the recipe for the vanilla cake layers, strawberry jam filling and a vanilla (slightly strawberry) buttercream below and check out my YouTube video to see how I made this heart shaped cake out of cake rounds.
Vegan Valentine’s Heart Cake | Round Cake Into Heart Shape Cake
vanilla cake layers, strawberry jam filling and a vanilla (slightly strawberry) buttercream
Ingredients
Vegan Vanilla Cake Layers
- 2 cups non dairy milk
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
Strawberry Filling
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- 1/4 cup juice from one lemon roughly 1/4 cup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Vegan Strawberry Buttercream
- 1/2 cup 115 grams vegan butter, softened
- 1 cup 215 grams vegetable shortening
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk if needed
- 2 teaspoons freeze dried strawberry powder
Instructions
Vanilla Cake Layers
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly grease three six inch or two eight inch cake pans and cover the base with a circle or square of parchment paper.
- Make vegan buttermilk in a large bowl by stirring together non-dairy milk and vinegar. Set aside for a few minutes.
- In a large bowl (or bowl of a stand mixer) sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk until combined.
- To the vegan buttermilk mixture add sugar, oil and vanilla, whisking to combine.
- Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients, beating with a hand mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment until smooth.
- Divide cake batter evenly to the prepared cake pans, smoothing out the tops and bake for 30 mins approximately. Time will vary depending on your oven and what size of pans you choose to use. I always like to rotate the pans at around the 20 minute mark. I will use a toothpick to check the cakes doneness – minimal crumbs stick to a toothpick after you insert it into the centre of the cake.
- Place pans on a cooling rack and wait until completely cooled to decorate.
Strawberry Filling
- Add ingredients to saucepot and cook on low heat until raspberries are easily mashed and liquid has reduced slightly.
Vanilla Buttercream
- Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, whip vegan butter and vegetable shortening together until smooth. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and continue to mix.
- Add the vanilla and mix well.
- Add in freeze dried strawberry powder.
- If icing is too dry/thick add non-dairy milk 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency.
Assembly
- In the center of the cake board, place the first cake layer top side up. Depending on the size of cake tins you used you’ll need to adjust the amount of buttercream you add. Start with 1/4 to 1/2 cup and spread it gently over the cake layer. You don’t want too much buttercream as you’ll add the cookie dough filing next.
- Place cookie dough filling disc and add a thin layer of icing.
- Repeat with second cake layer. (Cake, icing, cookie dough filling, icing)
- Place the final cake layer, top side down, on the second layer of filling.
- Apply a thin layer of buttercream around the cake for a ‘crumb coat’. Place the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
- Once the crumb coat is set, frost the cake with remaining buttercream and decorate to your liking. I added crushed cookies, buttercream dollops with cookie dough balls and chocolate ganache drips. Tip: test the drip consistency on the side of the bowl before testing on the cake!
