Easy & Romantic: Homemade Chocolate Marshmallow Heart Cake with Strawberry Frosting

February 14th calls for something truly special, and what could be more delightful than a homemade dessert crafted with love? This recipe for a Chocolate Marshmallow Heart Cake with luscious Strawberry Frosting and charming pink marshmallows is not just a treat for the taste buds but also a feast for the eyes. It’s designed to be soft, incredibly moist, and wonderfully easy to prepare, making it the perfect centerpiece for Valentine’s Day celebrations or any romantic gesture.

Creating heartwarming desserts doesn’t have to be complicated. This cake offers a simple yet elegant way to express your affection. Its rich chocolate base pairs exquisitely with the tangy sweetness of strawberry frosting, all crowned with soft, dreamy marshmallows. While this heart cake stands out, we also love making other festive treats like these Mini Love Letter Cakes and the vibrant Pink Velvet Cake. For even more inspiration for your romantic baking endeavors, be sure to explore our collection of Pink Desserts (Valentine’s Day Desserts) – you’re sure to find something that sparks joy!

Why This Chocolate Marshmallow Heart Cake is Perfect

When it comes to Valentine’s Day desserts, you want something that’s both impressive and enjoyable to make. This Chocolate Marshmallow Heart Cake hits all the right notes:

• Effortlessly Elegant: The heart shape and pink decorations make it visually stunning without requiring advanced decorating skills.
• Irresistibly Delicious: A classic chocolate cake base combined with a fresh strawberry buttercream is a flavor match made in heaven.
• Moist & Tender: Our chocolate cake recipe ensures a super moist crumb that holds up beautifully to frosting and marshmallows.
• Customizable: While perfect as is, this recipe is incredibly versatile, allowing for various fillings, frostings, and decorations to suit any taste.
• A Labor of Love: Homemade treats always carry a special touch, showing your loved ones just how much you care.

How to Make Marshmallow Heart Cake from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Guide

Making this beautiful heart-shaped marshmallow cake is simpler than you might think. Here’s a quick overview of the essential steps:

1. Bake the Chocolate Cake: Start with your favorite chocolate cake recipe (or use ours below!) and allow it to cool completely before proceeding. A fully cooled cake is crucial for clean cuts and stable frosting.
2. Prepare Strawberry Frosting: Whip up a batch of creamy strawberry frosting. To make the pink color truly pop, you can enhance it with a touch of pink food gel or a few drops of red liquid food coloring.
3. Cut Out Heart Shapes: Once your cake is cool, use a large heart-shaped cookie cutter to gently press and cut out individual heart-shaped cake pieces. This is where the magic of the “heart cake” truly comes to life.
4. Assemble & Decorate: Carefully place one heart cake layer on a serving plate. Spread a generous amount of strawberry frosting on top, then arrange a few mini marshmallows. Add a second heart cake layer, more frosting, and finish with an abundance of marshmallows and festive sprinkles.

Marshmallow Cake vs. S’mores Cake: Understanding the Difference

While both marshmallow cake and s’mores cake feature the delightful sweetness of marshmallows, they offer distinct flavor profiles and themes. Understanding their differences will help you appreciate today’s romantic creation:

• S’mores Cake: Typically a robust chocolate cake, often filled and frosted with marshmallow fluff or a marshmallow-based frosting. Its signature elements include decorations of crushed graham crackers, mini toasted marshmallows, and a generous drizzle of chocolate ganache. S’mores cakes evoke nostalgic campfire memories and are often associated with warm, summery gatherings, celebrating that classic outdoor treat. The emphasis is on smoky, toasted marshmallow and crunchy graham cracker textures.
• Today’s Marshmallow Cake (Heart Cake): Our version, on the other hand, is a more refined and romantically themed dessert. It features a tender chocolate cake base, beautifully complemented by a vibrant, fruity strawberry frosting. The mini marshmallows serve as a soft, chewy topping and an aesthetic accent, particularly the charming pink ones, enhancing the cake’s romantic appeal rather than recreating a campfire experience. This cake is designed to be elegant and sweet, with a focus on contrasting flavors and delicate presentation, making it perfect for occasions like Valentine’s Day or anniversaries.

Both are undoubtedly delicious, but our Heart Cake offers a lighter, fruitier, and more overtly romantic experience compared to the rustic, intense flavors of a s’mores cake.

Variations: Get Creative with Your Heart Cake

This chocolate marshmallow heart cake recipe is incredibly versatile! Feel free to customize it to your personal preferences or the occasion. Here are some inspiring variations:

• Try Other Decorations: Beyond the charming pink marshmallows and sprinkles, consider adding fresh fruits like sliced strawberries or raspberries for a burst of freshness and color. Chopped candy bars, chocolate chips, various chopped nuts (like pecans or walnuts), shredded coconut, or even delicate fresh edible flowers can elevate the presentation and flavor.
• Add a Different Filling: While strawberry frosting is a delightful choice, you can easily swap it for other fillings. Homemade fruit jams and preserves, such as Easy Homemade Strawberry Jam, raspberry, or cherry, work wonderfully. For a richer flavor, thick Homemade Caramel Sauce or creamy Homemade Dulce De Leche can add a decadent twist. Thick pie fillings (like cherry or apple) can also be used for a heartier, fruit-filled center.
• Consider Another Frosting Flavor: If strawberry isn’t your preference, the possibilities are endless! Rich Caramel Frosting or nutty Peanut Butter Frosting would offer a completely different, yet equally delicious, experience. For another fruit-based option, this vibrant Blackberry Buttercream Frosting provides a beautiful color and tangy flavor.
• Make Other Shapes: Don’t limit yourself to hearts! Utilize any large cookie cutters you have on hand to create various festive shapes, such as stars, circles, or even letters. Alternatively, you can create a cardboard template of your desired shape and use a sharp knife to carefully cut out the cake pieces, offering endless possibilities for personalization.
• Decorate with Fondant: For a polished, professional look, consider decorating with fondant. Ice the entire cake (or individual heart cakes) smoothly, omitting the decorative toppings. Then, drape with store-bought pink fondant or try your hand at Homemade Marshmallow Fondant for an extra touch of sweetness. Finish with intricate decorative piping work on top for an elegant finish.
• Marshmallow Birthday Cake: Transform this romantic treat into a fun birthday cake! Decorate it with an abundance of the birthday person’s favorite candies, chocolates, or colorful sprinkles, similar to our Best Birthday Cake, making it a truly personalized celebration cake.

Tips and Techniques for a Perfect Heart Cake

Achieving a picture-perfect and delicious marshmallow heart cake is easy with these helpful tips and techniques:

• Chill Cake Overnight: This is a game-changer! Chilling your baked cake (especially if it’s a sheet cake from which you’ll cut shapes) in the refrigerator overnight makes it much firmer and easier to handle. This results in cleaner, more precise cuts for your heart shapes and significantly reduces crumbling, giving you neat edges.
• Don’t Assemble Warm Cake: Patience is key in baking. Ensure your cake layers are completely cooled – ideally, at room temperature or even slightly chilled – before you start frosting and assembling. Attempting to frost a warm cake will cause the icing to melt, resulting in a sticky, runny mess and a collapsed cake structure.
• Line Pan with Parchment Paper: For effortless cake removal, always line your baking pan with parchment paper. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan, and if possible, extend it up the sides to create “handles.” This simple step prevents sticking and ensures your cake comes out in one piece.
• Keep Cake Covered: Once you’ve cut out your heart shapes (or even if you’re making a larger cake), the exposed sides can quickly dry out when left open to the air. To maintain moisture and freshness, keep the cake pieces covered with plastic wrap (saran wrap) or store them in an airtight container until you’re ready to assemble and serve.
• Make a Large Heart Cake: If individual mini cakes aren’t your style, you can easily adapt this recipe to make one large heart-shaped cake. Simply bake your chocolate cake in a heart-shaped cake pan (if you have one) and follow the same assembling and decorating method, stacking layers and frosting as usual.
• Where to Find Pink Marshmallows: Pink mini marshmallows are often a seasonal item. You can typically find them in the baking aisle of most grocery stores starting in late January, as they become available for Valentine’s Day. If you can’t find them, regular white mini marshmallows work just as well, or you can try to dye white marshmallows with food coloring for a custom pink hue.
• Color Icing for Vibrancy: While homemade strawberry frosting will naturally have a lovely pale pink tint from the fresh fruit, you can enhance and deepen this color significantly. Add a few drops of pink gel food coloring (gel colors provide intense color without altering consistency) or a few drops of red liquid food coloring until you achieve your desired vibrant shade of pink.

Troubleshooting Common Cake Issues

Even experienced bakers encounter challenges. Here are solutions to common issues you might face:

• Cake Crumbles when Cutting: Ensure the cake is completely chilled. A warm or room-temperature cake is much more prone to crumbling. Use a sharp, thin knife or cookie cutter and press down firmly rather than sawing.
• Frosting is Too Soft/Melting: This often happens if the cake is warm or the frosting itself is too warm. Chill the frosting in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it firms up. Also, make sure your working environment isn’t too hot.
• Marshmallows Stick Together: If your marshmallows are too sticky, lightly dust them with a little cornstarch before adding them to the cake. This helps prevent them from clumping.
• Cake is Dry: Overbaking is the usual culprit. Always check for doneness a few minutes before the minimum bake time. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out with moist crumbs, not wet batter. Keeping the cake covered after baking also helps retain moisture.

Storage: Keeping Your Heart Cake Fresh

• Refrigerate: To maintain its freshness and delightful texture, store your decorated heart cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
• Freeze: Both the unfrosted cake layers and the strawberry frosting can be frozen separately. Wrap the cooled cake layers tightly in plastic wrap, then foil, and store in a freezer-safe bag for up to 1 month. Freeze the frosting in an airtight container. Thaw both in the refrigerator overnight. You may need to re-whip the frosting briefly to restore its creamy consistency before assembling and decorating.
• Make Ahead Instructions: This cake can be prepared and assembled 1 day in advance. Once decorated, cover it loosely but securely with plastic wrap or place it in an airtight cake carrier and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to serve. This allows the flavors to meld beautifully.

More Valentine’s Day Desserts to Love

If you’re looking for even more sweet inspiration for Valentine’s Day or any romantic occasion, explore these delightful recipes:

• Easy Love Cake
• Moist Red Velvet Cake
• Pink Chocolate Bark Cake
• Valentine’s Day Cookies (Love Letter Cookies)
• Easy Heart Cookies (With Cake Mix)
• Easy Flower Cookies
• Chocolate Covered Strawberries
• Flower Cupcake Bouquet
• Fondant Flower Cake

Recipe: Chocolate Marshmallow Heart Cake

Chocolate Marshmallow Heart Cake

Abeer Rizvi

This quick and easy chocolate marshmallow cake recipe yields a soft and moist heart-shaped cake with delightful strawberry frosting and charming pink marshmallows, making it absolutely perfect for Valentine’s Day.

Prep Time

10 minutes
mins

Cook Time

45 minutes
mins

Decorating time

20 minutes
mins

Total Time

1 hour
hr
15 minutes
mins

Course
Cake, Dessert

Cuisine
American

Servings

4
Mini cakes

Calories

514
kcal

Ingredients

• 1 recipe
  Chocolate cake (baked in a 9×11 inch rectangle pan)
• 2
  cups
  Strawberry buttercream frosting (tinted pink if desired)
• 1
  cup
  Mini pink marshmallows
• ¼
  cup
  Heart sprinkles (or other festive sprinkles)

Instructions

1. Prepare the Chocolate Cake: Bake your preferred chocolate cake recipe in a 9×11 inch rectangle pan. Ensure the pan is greased and floured, or lined with parchment paper for easy release. Once baked, let the cake cool completely on a wire rack. This is crucial for easy cutting and assembly. You can even chill it overnight for best results.
2. Cut Out Heart Shapes: Once the chocolate cake has thoroughly cooled (and ideally chilled), use a large heart-shaped cookie cutter to carefully cut out individual heart pieces from the cake. You should yield approximately 8-10 heart shapes, depending on the size of your cutter.
3. First Layer Assembly: Place one heart-shaped cake piece onto a small serving plate. Using an offset spatula or knife, spread a generous layer of the strawberry buttercream frosting evenly over the top of the cake.
4. Then, gently stick a few mini pink marshmallows into the frosting on the first layer, pressing them down lightly to secure.
5. Second Layer & Final Touch: Carefully place another heart-shaped cake piece directly on top of the marshmallows. Ensure it’s centered and stable.
6. Spread another layer of strawberry frosting over the top of this second cake piece, covering it completely.
7. Finally, stick some more mini pink marshmallows into the top frosting layer and scatter a generous amount of heart sprinkles for a festive finish. Repeat these steps for all your mini cakes. Serve immediately or store as directed. Enjoy your beautiful and delicious homemade treat!

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 514kcal
Carbohydrates: 86g
Fat: 18g
Saturated Fat: 3g
Sodium: 207mg
Potassium: 38mg
Sugar: 80g
Calcium: 3mg
Iron: 0.2mg

An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below or rate and tag @cakewhiz on social