Heart Cake, a special cake to celebrate valentines day or any special occasions. Making a heart cake shape or hidden heart can make a great surprise for your loved ones on occasions like anniversary, birthday. In this blog post I have shared detailed recipe for making hidden heart cake with step by step pictures and video.

Hidden heart Cake
If you want to make anything special for this valentine then this is the answer. This is a special cake which has a heart inside it, it may seem complicated to look at, but actually it is super easy to make.
I am sure your valentine will be very excited if you serve this for desert. For more decadent dessert check my intense Mud cake or Lava Cake
About Hidden Heart Cake
Heart cake, hidden heart cake or heart shaped cake is perfect for special occasions. This heart cake is a simple loaf cake in which there is a heart shape hidden inside.
The technique of making hidden heart cake is very simple. But the joy and surprise you create when you slice the cake is unbeatable.
While thinking of heart cakes, most recipe will use heart shaped moulds and bake cake in that.
You can use any cake batter like chocolate, vanilla, red velvet or even other flavoured cake. But this recipe has heart inside the cake which will be more impressive.
More Recipes

I have made multi colours (rainbow) heart in this recipe, but you can play with your creativity and make different colours. Pink heart cake, black heart cake and a romantic red velvet heart cake are some of the popular ideas.
For making heart cake you have to make two loaf cake. One loaf cake will be a coloured cake which will be used to cut-out heart shapes for the cake. Other batter can either be vanilla flavoured or chocolate to surround the heart cake.
The hearts which are cut out is placed inside a loaf cake. The cake can be made in different flavours.

Ingredients
- Plain Flour - I used refined flour for making cake. You can use half wheat flour and half plain flour for the cake.
- Sugar - Use refined sugar for the cake. You can use caster sugar or powder regular sugar in a blender. You can use normal sugar too.
- Butter - unsalted butter is used in the cake. Use soft unsalted butter for better flavour.
- Eggs - eggs are essential in the cake for making it set and turn spongy.
- Baking powder - this recipe uses baking powder and not baking soda to make the cake spongy.
- Vanilla - use pure vanilla extract for best flavour.
- Food colouring - use any of your favorite food colouring to make the cake. You can use multi colour to make rainbow cake or use any solid colour.

Step by Step Pictures
Pre-preparation
1)Preheat oven to 180 degree C | 356 degree F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with oil and dust it with flour. Coat on all sides with the flour and tap off the excess. Instead of doing this you can line the pan with parchment paper.

Making Cake Batter for Rainbow Heart
2)For making the rainbow hearts. We are going to start making a vanilla cake batter. Once the cake batter is made we will dye it with different colour and bake.
For making cake batter, take soft unsalted butter, sugar in a large mixing bowl. You can use regular sugar or caster sugar.

3)Add in pure vanilla extract. Use a hand whisk or electric beater to whisk this really well till the mixture is creamy and fluffy. I used a hand whisk it too me 2 to 3 minutes.

4)Now lets add in eggs. You have to add one egg at a time for even mixing. Add one egg and mix well till combined.

5)I was impatience so I added remaining two eggs at the same time. Once the eggs are added in whisk it really well.
Pro Tip: If the mixture looks slightly curdled don't panic, once you add in the flour the batter will come together.

6)Add in plain flour, salt directly into the creamed butter, sugar mixture.
Pro Tip: if you are using salted butter, don't add salt.

7)Add in baking powder and fold the batter gently. Now add in milk and fold gently to a smooth batter.

8)Instead of using electric whisk or hand whisk, fold the batter gently with spatula till smooth.

Dyeing Cake Batter with Food Colours
9)Once the cake batter is done, divide the batter between 6 or 7 bowls depending on how many colours you want to use. I used roughly ¾ cup of batter on each bowl.
Add in few drops of food colour to each bowl. Mix it gently until combined. You can choose any colour as you prefer. I like to use gel food colours which adds intense shade.

Baking Rainbow Loaf Cake
10)Take each colour batter, spoon into the loaf pan anyway you like. I like to pour three colour in the base next to each other. Then top with more cake batter.

11)Now use a tooth pick or skewer to make swirl pattern on the cake batter. Keep swirling the batter gently to create the pattern. Don't over do with this.

12)Now the cake is swirled beautiful. Place the loaf pan into the 180 degree C preheated oven. Now bake this in oven for 45 mins to 1 hour till the cake is done. Remove it and cool down completely.

Cutting hearts in rainbow cake
13) Un mould the cake from the loaf pan onto a cutting board. Let it cool completely, slice this into 2 inch pieces and cut out heart shape using the heart mould.

14) Cut out hearts in all the cake slices. Once the hearts are cut, Place the heart cakes in fridge for 30 mins to 1 hour to firm up a little.

Making Vanilla Cake Batter for Hidden Rainbow Heart Cake
15)Take soft unsalted butter and sugar in a bowl. For easy mixing, you can powder sugar in a blender till fine and use.

16)Add in vanilla extract and beat till creamy.

17)Add in two eggs and mix till creamy and combined. You can use hand blender or whisk.

18)Add in plain flour, baking powder into the creamed butter sugar mixture.

19)Mix the cake batter, the batter has to be slightly thick yet creamy. If you find the batter too thick, then add little milk to loosen the batter.

Assembling Hidden Heart Cake
20)Spoon the ¼ of the batter into the loaf pan. Spread evenly.

21)Now take the rainbow hearts, place the hearts over the cake batter and arrange in the centre. Make sure the pointy side of the heart is facing upwards. Stack all the hearts like this.

22)Now you can see the hearts are stacked.

23)Spread the remaining vanilla batter over the hearts to cover it completely. Make sure the entire rainbow is covered with cake batter.

Baking Hidden Rainbow Cake
24) Now place the loaf pan into the oven. Bake for 35 mins to 45 minutes till the cake is cooked completely. Insert a toothpick to check whether the cake is baked completely. The tooth pick should come out clean.
Once the cake is baked, remove it from oven and let the cake cool down in the pan for 15 minutes.

25)Un mould the cake on a cutting board. Cool it completely, slice and serve.

Variations

This is the same recipe as the above rainbow heart cake. Instead of making rainbow hearts, I added red food colour to the batter and made red hearts. And for the surrounding cake, I used chocolate flavoured cake batter instead of vanilla cake batter. Infact I have a recipe video of making this heart cake. Watch this video before making this cake.
Expert Tips
- Use small heart cookie cutter so the entire cake is hidden inside the chocolate cake batter.
- You can use any shaped cookie cutter instead of heart shape.
- Don't over bake the cake.
- You can use any colour. Rainbow colour will look cute too.
Storage Suggestions
You can wrap the cake and store in room temperature for 2 days. Store in fridge upto a week.
📖 Get Recipe

Heart Cake Recipe | Hidden Heart Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For Rainbow Heart Cake
- 1½ cup All Purpose Flour | Maida 180 grams
- 1 cup Sugar 200 grams
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 3 large Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 175 grams Unsalted Butter
- ¼ cup Milk 60 ml
- Food Colours as needed red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink
For Vanilla Cake (outer cover cake)
- 1½ cup All Purpose Flour | Maida 180 grams
- ¾ cup Sugar 150 grams
- 180 grams Unsalted Butter
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 large Eggs
Instructions
For Cut Out Hearts
- Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with oil and dust it with flour. Coat on all sides and set aside.
- Now take butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk well. Add in eggs one at a time and whip till creamy. Now add in flour, baking powder and salt and fold gently. Add in milk and fold gently. Divide the batter between 6 bowls and add one food colouring in each one and mix well. Now spoon this into the loaf pan and use a skewer to make swirls on it.
- If you are not making rainbow hearts, you can add one solid colour to the batter. For example, red, pink or black colour and bake the cake.
- Now bake this in oven for 45 mins to 1 hour till the cake is done. Remove it and cool down completely. Now slice this into pieces and cut out heart shape using this. Put this in fridge for 30 mins to 1 hour or so.
For Vanilla Cake (outer cover cake)
- Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with oil and dust it with flour. Coat on all sides and set aside. Now take butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk well. Now add in eggs one at a time and whip till creamy. Add in flour, baking powder and salt and fold gently.
- Now take the loaf pan, spoon ¼ of the cake batter, spread evenly, now arrange the hearts on it and spoon the remaining batter in and bake for 35 mins to 45 mins. Now let the cake cool down, slice and serve.
Video

Nutrition
Tried this Recipe
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Anonymous
Hey u posted the recipe as told.... Just now searched and took recipe to do tomo.. Thought to search in ur blog whether u posted or not... Nice dear... I will mail u how mine came out ... Planned for cupcake with hidden heart and hidden message cake in loaf pan... Thanks for posting the recipe
Anonymous
Nice..thanks aarti
Anonymous
Dear Aarthi,
I have a question on a recipe but not related to the cake recipe above. When we make rice flour at home after grinding, it will be slightly wet. This you can roast lightly if you want to keep it for several weeks. My question is can we use this lightly roasted rice flour to make dosas or should it always be freshly milled rice flour. Will it affect the end result of the dosa? I really want to try your dosa recipes but I don't always have time to keep making fresh rice flour (and I can't buy it in the shops here either).
Thank you for your answer!! (Btw I love all your recipes- first thing I do in the morning is check your blog!!!)
Eleonora Gambon
Beautiful!
Aarthi
@Anonymousu can roast it lightly and use
Arati Rahalkar
I tried the rainbow cake today and it turned out just fine. However, I did not go ahead and bake the second cake. I am doubtful how the inside rainbow cake that is done / baked already would turn out to be if it is baked one more time alongwith the outside cake... Won't it turn hard?
Aarthi
@Arati Rahalkarno it wont get hard
Anonymous
Hi, wanted to know if the rainbow hearts have to be kept in the freezer section of the refrigerator or the other part.
Anonymous
Hey Aarthi..Wonderful cake..want to make this for my Husband. I make cakes in Microwave and they are done in 7-10min. Same can i use with these cakes??
Aarthi
this cake has to be done in microwave convection mode.
Giftbasketworldwide
Now, that's what called Perfection. Keep up!!
Prabhjot singh
great
Love Heart Cake
The Hidden Chocolate Heart Cake recipe is most amazing. I tried this recipe and getting a lot of comments from my near and dear. Lots of love!!