Follow our easy, step-by-step, instructions to learn how to make this Raspberry Heart Cake. We’ll show you how to make a great raspberry filling that goes inside. Printable recipe included.
Slightly tart raspberry filling, meets white cake layers and buttercream frosting. Perfect cake for Valentines Day or any time you need a special dessert for a very special someone.
Our Raspberry Heart Cake was made especially for Valentines Day as a way for you to impress that special someone in your life. I mean, who wouldn’t appreciate a great made from scratch, home made cake? Right?
Naturally, it would make a great cake to serve to your family and friends any time of the year. And, seeing how it uses Raspberries for the filling, it’s not something you ordinarily see on the dessert table.
I liked the combination of the slightly sweet – slightly tart taste of the raspberry filling. It’s just a great combination for our Buttercream Frosting and our cake layers. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
The recipe was inspired by one of those fancy gourmet cakes you can order online for about 80.00. That doesn’t include shipping by the way. The one I was looking at was called a Rose Cake and the top was covered with buttercream rosettes instead of the heart that I’ve done here.
In my neck of the woods, the only time you’ll see someone paying 80.00 for a cake, is when it’s being auctioned off at some church fund raiser. Even then, although you know the cakes going to be good, you’re only going to be willing to pay that much for a cake because you know the money is going to be used for a good cause. Smile.
I’ve never claimed I could decorate a cake, so please don’t hold that against me. I just wanted to share the recipe. I’m sure you can do much better.
Still, what spouse or loved one wouldn’t be impressed that you at least TRIED to make them a special cake on Valentines Day. Right? Gotta score those brownie points wherever you can. Smile.
Ready to give our cake a try? Alright then, let’s head on out to the kitchen, and… Let’s Get Cooking!!!
Raspberry Filling – You’ll need these ingredients
You will also need three 8 inch cake layers, and a buttercream frosting.
You could use a boxed cake mix to make your layers, or you might want to check out our recipe for Basic Cake Layers made from scratch like we use here. If you use our recipe, and want to make your layers white, you will need to use 6 egg WHITES instead of the 3 whole eggs that the recipe calls for.
You will also need at least a double batch of our Buttercream Frosting.
Drain the raspberries.
Thaw the raspberries in your refrigerator the night before you plan to make your cake filling. Place a sieve in a bowl and place the thawed berries in the sieve. Let the juice drain into the bowl. It’s not going to provide a lot of juice but we’ll make up for that.
This is all the juice that came from my package. Pour it in a measuring cup.
ADD enough water to the juice to equal 3/4ths cup of liquid.
Use the back of a spoon to press the berries through the sieve. This will remove most of the seeds, but probably will not remove them all. Those little seeds can be pesky when you’re enjoying your cake.
This will take a few minutes, but will be worth the effort. Smile.
You will end up with pulp like this in your bowl.
You should have 1/2 cup of pulp. I ended up with just a couple of Tablespoons more than that, but I used it all. You only need 1/2 cup, so if you have a lot more than that, then measure out the 1/2 cup to use in the recipe.
Throw away the seeds left in the stainer.
Place the sugar in a medium sized sauce pot.
Add the cornstarch.
Add the lemon juice to the pot.
Add the juice-water combination. NOT the pulp.
Stir everything together.
Note: No, I didn’t actually stir my coated pot with a metal spoon. It was just handy for the photo. Just in case you were wondering.
Place the sauce pot over Medium heat. Stir it constantly while it heats up. Let it simmer until it thickens. This happens pretty quick so keep a close eye on it as you stir.
Pour the thickened sauce into the pulp.
ADD the almond flavoring.
Whisk everything together until fully combined.
Place this in the refrigerator for at least two hours or overnight if possible.
Assemble your cake: You’ll need to have your Buttercream ready.
I use a turntable to assemble my cakes on. It makes it easier to decorate the cake. That’s it on the bottom. Then, I placed a small piece of drawer liner on top of that. This will hold my cardboard in place as I rotate the cake and keep it from slipping around.
I use ready made cardboard circles for most of my cakes. I did have to trim this one a bit so I could store the cake when finished. Once everything is in place, you can begin to assemble your cake.
Place just a dab or two of frosting on the cardboard. Center the first layer on top of the board. The frosting will help hold the cake layer so it doesn’t slip around.
Place the first layer with the bottom down on the cardboard.
Use your frosting to pipe a border around the outside edge of your first layer. Obviously, it doesn’t have to be pretty, but if you can do it – go for it. Smile. This should be about 3/4 of an inch high by the way.
Pipe another ring inside of the first. The frosting is going to act as a dam or barrier to keep the filling from running out of your cake.
Pour or spoon enough of the filling to fill the inside of the ring.
Place the second cake layer on top of the first. Gently press it down and center it up on top of the first layer.
I placed the second layer with the bottom side down also. Repeat the process of piping two borders of frosting around the outside edge. Spoon or pour more of the filling into the rings on this layer.
Place the third layer with the bottom side up. This will give you a nice flat surface for the top of your cake. Again, gently press this layer down into the frosting to sturdy everything up.
Use an offset spatula to add some frosting to the top of the cake. Spread it out evenly over the top. You only need a thin layer of frosting at this time. We’re going to add this as a crumb coat.
Add a thin layer of frosting to the side of your cake. Fill in the space between the layers. I use this cake decorating tool to do this. You just coat the cake first with frosting, then you hold a spatula or decorating tool up to the edge and turn your cake. This will smooth out the frosting and remove any excess. Again, you just need a thin coat at this time.
Here is my completed crumb coated cake. If you’re not familiar with this process, there are lots of videos online that explain this in more detail than what I can do here with photos. I encourage you to check some out.
A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that catches and holds any crumbs that might be coming off of your cake layers. This way, the final layer of frosting will not have any crumbs in it when you finish decorating your cake.
Once your cake is crumb coated, you will need to place it in your refrigerator for at least 30-60 minutes for it to firm up.
I hope you’ve noticed how straight the layers are on my cake. I was really proud of how this was turning out. Smile.
Decorate the cake as desired.
Once you pull the crumb coated cake from the refrigerator, be ready to add that final layer of frosting. Spread frosting over the top, around the sides, then smooth it out as best you can.
You can leave it smooth, or if you have enough frosting, you can add swirls to the sides. It’s your choice.
I went with these small dots on the sides. I’ve never claimed to be able to decorate a cake. I’ve always wanted to learn by taking some classes but never have. The dots were made with a bag of frosting with a small round tip. I could have been more accurate in my spacing, but I was pretty much just winging it.
I did try to make some swirls in the top layer of icing which was a bit thicker than what I had on the sides. I used the same bag and tip to pipe the outline of a heart in the center of the cake. Then, I used a little bit of the raspberry filling to fill in the heart outline. It’s okay to laugh, I don’t mind. Smile.
You might notice the long spot in the heart. That was some icing that was sticking up. I didn’t see it until after I’d added the filling. I decided to leave it. I thought it could be a scar from a broken heart that had healed over. Ahhh.
Enjoy!
The frosting on this cake is very sweet, no denying that. I liked that you could get a bite of cake, cake with raspberry filling, or cake with filling and frosting all together. The slight tartness of the raspberries helps offset some of the sweetness of the frosting. I hope you’ll enjoy it should you decide to make one.
