Chocolate Cake for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day celebrations are low key in our home, but I am surprising Hubs with a Valentine’s chocolate cake. I always make Hubs a Valentine’s dessert of some sort. This year I found some fun Valentine’s bracelets at the dollar store and decided to use them as a pretty cake topper. This chocolate cake with strawberry filling is a really easy to make cake for Valentine’s Day. The candies make it easy to decorate as well.

If your Hubs is like my Hubs he enjoys homemade food much more than going out anywhere. If we were to go out it is more for me, so any homemade food or Valentine’s dessert unfortunately pleases him way more than dinner reservations. Oh, how I wish.

Valentine’s this year is just the two of us. Sadly no munchkins are visiting. I decided to make our cake for Valentine’s Day smaller around and taller than a regular sized cake. If you don’t have the small cake pans, or you have more guests, use regular round cake pans instead.

Strawberry Buttercream Icing

It’s not the cake or the sweet and juicy strawberries that make this Valentine’s chocolate cake special, it’s the icing.  Adding no chemical colouring or extracts makes the difference, just lots of delicious strawberry flavour. This icing is spoon-licking good, it’s hard to leave it alone while making the cake. Its so very good.

How to Make this Valentine’s Chocolate Cake

Valentine’s Dessert Ingredients

This Valentine’s dessert starts with a cake mix, but if you want to purchase a cake and just make the icing I am certain no one will know the difference.

Step 1. Baking the Chocolate Cake Layers

The cake in the images is made using two 6-inch spring-form pans. Or two regular 8-inch round cake pans.  If you happen to have heart-shaped baking pans they would be fun as well.

Mix the chocolate cake mix according to the directions. Bake.

Bake, remove from the pans and let cool completely.  If you use the 6-inch pans and slice each cake in half, you will end up with a four-layer cake.  If you’re using regular pans, you don’t need to split the cake layers.

Step 2 – Whip up the Amazing Strawberry Icing

Place 2 cups of butter into the mixer bowl.  To make this strawberry all butter frosting so ultra creamy you need to begin by whipping up salted butter. Beat on high for three or four minutes until the butter is light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. The butter will lighten in colour and get fluffy.

Add the icing sugar, 1 cup at a time. Beating the icing between each addition. Once the icing sugar is incorporated turn the mixer to high and whip for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the half cup of strawberry syrup, and whip on high for another two minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

This recipe makes about five cups of smooth and fluffy soft pink strawberry icing. Next, we will make the simple filling.

Step 3 – Mix up the Amazing Strawberry Cake Filling

The cake filling is made with fresh strawberries for extra flavour and moistness. Wash, hull and cut a half pound of strawberries. You will have about two cups of sliced strawberries.

Place the cut strawberries in a bowl.  Add a cup of icing to the bowl and mix with a spatula.

Add the strawberry and icing filling between each cake layer.

Place the cake layers on top of each other.  If you make the tall six inch cake I suggest placing a skewer in the middle to hold the cake steady.

Decorating the Cake for Valentine’s Day

Step 1 – Add a Crumb Layer

Place 1 1/2 cups of strawberry icing on top of the cake and work downwards on all sides. Ice the cake with a thin crumb layer to seal in the cake crumbs.  This makes the cake much easier to decorate. Its so worth the extra step, especially for a special cake.

Place the cake in the fridge until the icing hardens. At least an hour.

Step 2 – Icing the Cake for Valentine’s Day

When the crumb layer is hard, place 1 1/2 cups of icing on the top of the cake. Apply the icing down the cake sides first, and then finish the top.  Once you’ve added a thick layer of icing, use a cake spatula to smooth the entire side of the cake.  This made my cake icing as smooth as possible, but I didn’t fret about it too much.  The cake is Hubs, I just made it as smooth as my skills allowed.

Step 3 – Decorating the Valentine’s Day Cake

You should have a cup of icing left.  Using an icing bag fit with a fit with a Wilton 21 tip,  make large swirls along the top of the cake.  To do this hold the icing bag straight up while you pipe the icing. If you have icing left make a shell edge along the bottom using the same tip.

If you don’t have a cake tip, place heaping teaspoons of icing along the top of your cake.  They are basically covered with candy anyways.

Step 4 – Adding the Valentine Candy

I had two dollar store packages of Valentine bracelets, the little love U hearts are perfect for a cake top.  I ended up using 10 of the bracelets.  Place the central valentine on top of the icing swirl, and place the bracelet portion in the middle.  Repeat all the way around.

To decorate the bottom of the chocolate strawberry cake I snipped the elastic from three bracelets and placed each little candy around the bottom of the cake.

Hubs is away at work, his one week turned into three.  So I sent him a picture of the cake, wrapped it in cellophane and popped it in the freezer for when he arrives home. The joys of working away from home.

Other Valentine’s Dessert Recipes