Sweetheart Cake

This Sweetheart Cake recipe has three layers of cake in various shades of red with a whipped frosting and cake crumbles on top. It’s perfect for holidays and celebrations!

It’s a great idea to have a super cute, super easy to make cake up your sleeve. You can whip it up without too much effort and everyone will be impressed. This Sweetheart Cake has three layers of moist red cake with a light, fluffy whipped frosting and adorable cake crumbles on top.

That’s right, you don’t even need sprinkles for this cake, you just use some of the cake crumbs instead and it looks great!

How To Make A Sweetheart Cake

For this recipe, I used one white cake mix and one red velvet cake mix and combined them to make three different shades. Start by mixing the white cake mix, vanilla yogurt, water, egg whites and oil with a stand mixer.

Mix for about 30 seconds on low, until moistened. Then, beat for 2 minutes. The batter will be thick. Move the white cake batter into a different bowl and then repeat with the red velvet cake mix. You don’t even have to wash the mixer bowl first since the white cake mix will get blended into the red.

Next, set out three bowls for mixing the batter, one bowl for each of the three cake layers. Put the following in the three bowls and stir until the color in the bowl is uniform.

1. 2 1/2 cups of white cake batter + 1/2 cup of red velvet cake batter
2. 2 cups of white cake batter + 1 cup of red velvet cake batter
3. 3 cups of red velvet cake batter

Spread the batter in three 9-inch cakes pans that have been greased, floured and lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325° for 35-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the cakes to cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack. Carefully remove the cakes from the pans and peel off the parchment circles. Cool the cakes completely on a wire rack.

Once the cakes have cooled, level them by using a long serrated knife to cut off the rounded tops. Gently run the serrated knife over the rounded cake tops that you just cut off to make cake crumbs that will be used for decorating the cake. Set the cake crumbs aside.

Place the darkest cake layer on a cake stand on a turntable (add a cardboard cake round if you prefer). Spread about one cup of the frosting on the first layer and repeat with the two remaining layers going from darkest to lightest.

Use the remaining frosting to cover sides of the cake. Start with a thin layer of frosting and then top it with another layer. Smooth the sides with a large offset spatula or icing smoother (like the one I used in the video above). You don’t need to go crazy trying to make the sides perfectly smooth because the sides will have lines around them. It’s more about making the sides level.

Next, use the tip of a small offset spatula to make lines around the cake and a spiral on the top of the cake. Hold the tip of the offset spatula in the frosting and turn the cake turntable until you get back to where you started. Continue making lines, moving up the cake after each one. To make the spiral on the top of the cake, hold the tip of the spatula at an angle along the edge of the cake, turn the cake turntable while slowly moving the spatula to make smaller and smaller spirals ending in the center.

 

Sprinkle some all three colors of cake crumbs on the top of the cake. Use a fork to move them around and spread them out.

One of the joys of frosted cakes is that you don’t know what you are going to get when you cut into them. The three colored layers in this Sweetheart Cake look so pretty with the white frosting and cake crumbs on top!

Also try making:

Red Velvet Ooey Gooey Bars

Red Velvet Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups

Red Velvet Cake