These Valentine’s Day heart-shaped cake bites are a fun, no-stick version of classic cake pops made with crumbled cake and frosting, shaped into hearts, and coated in chocolate. They're easy to customize, perfect for Valentine's Day and parties, and a great make-ahead dessert when you want something cute, bite-sized, and simple to serve.
🔍 Quick Look: Heart-Shaped Cake Bites
⏱️ Prep Time: 30 minutes
❄️ Chill Time: 30 minutes
🕒 Total Time: About 1 hour
🍰 Yield: About 20-24 cake bites
🧁 Key Ingredients: Baked cake, frosting, chocolate coating, candy melts
🥣 Tools: Mixing bowl, baking sheet, parchment paper, heart silicone molds
🎉 Perfect For: Valentine's Day, parties, gifting, dessert boards
⭐ Difficulty: Moderate
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❤️ Why You'll Love These Heart Cake Bites
- No sticks, no mess: All the fun of cake pops and cakesicles in an easy, bite-sized form that's simple to serve and eat.
- Perfect for parties and gifting: These heart-shaped cake bites are cute, portable, and ideal for Valentine's Day and dessert tables.
- Easy to customize: Use any cake flavor, frosting, or chocolate coating to match the occasion.
Key Ingredients
See the Recipe Card for a Full List of Ingredients and Tools
- Cake: you can use any cake recipe for these cake pop
- Frosting: same with the frosting, you can you use any frosting
- Candy Melts or Melting Chocolate: I highly recommend using melting chocolate or candy melts so you don’t need to temper the chocolate.
⭐ Top Tip: Using Candy Melts
When making chocolate-covered treats, especially in different colors, candy melts are the easiest and most reliable chocolate coating to use.
- No Tempering Required: Candy melts don’t need to be tempered, so you can simply melt, dip, and decorate without worrying about streaks, bloom, or dull spots.
- Smooth Dipping Texture: They melt evenly and set up firm and glossy, making your chocolate strawberries perfect for gifting, dessert boards, and party platters.
- Easy to Find + Color Safely: Candy melts are sold at most craft stores, grocery stores, and Amazon. If you want to change colors, always use pre-colored candy melts or oil-based candy colors. Never use regular food coloring in chocolate since it will cause the chocolate to seize.
HOW TO MAKE
- Add Chocolate to Mold: 1-2 tsp of melted chocolate to each heart and spread around until even using a paint brush, spoon or other utensil. If necessary, add more chocolate to the edges of the heart molds as those are common areas that will break when removing the hearts.
- Let Harden: Let chill in the fridge 5-10 minutes until hard, or at room temperature for 10-20 minutes. If any areas look sparse, repeat the process of adding more chocolate to reinforce the edges and let it harden again.
- Make Cake Filling: While the chocolate hardens, make the cake mix by adding the frosting to a bowl of the cake. Mix using a spatula or your hands. It should come together when you press it but not be too wet with frosting. Remember you need way less frosting than you think. If it’s dry add a bit more frosting, 1 tsp at a time.
- Fill Molds: Add 1-2 tsp of cake mixture to each mold cavity, leaving room at the top for more chocolate. The exact amount of cake mix can vary depending on the size of the mold.
- Top with Chocolate: Spoon another teaspoon of chocolate on the cake mix in the molds. Using a bench scraper or knife, scrape the chocolate off the top of the mold.
- Let Harden Then Remove: Once the chocolate has completely hardened, gently remove the hearts from the silicone mold.
Adding Sweetheart Conversations
If desired, use an edible red food coloring pen to write or cookie stamp to add sweetheart conversations onto the hearts.
I used this cookie press to stamp the heart cake bites. Make sure the words are backwards in the mold so they'll stamp opposite the way you enter them.
Tips and Tricks
- Use the right cake-to-frosting ratio: Start with a small amount of frosting and add more only as needed. The mixture should hold together when pressed without feeling greasy or overly soft.
- Thin Thick Chocolate: If the melted candy melts feel too thick, stir in a small amount of vegetable shortening to create a smoother dipping consistency.
- Any cake flavor works: Vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, funfetti, or boxed cake all work well.
- Try different decorating techniques: Instead of sweetheart conversations, you could drizzle more chocolate and add sprinkles, sanding sugar, or crushed candy while the coating is still wet. You could also use edible luster dust to match my Valentine’s Day Chocolate Covered Strawberries.
FAQ
There are few reasons candy melts can get grainy:
Liquid. If the strawberries are not dry enough, they can get the chocolate rainy or cause it to size up.
Adding Food coloring. If you want to dye the white chocolate, you must use candy colors not regular food coloring. Candy colors are oil base food coloring that is safe for coloring candy melts and chocolate and won't cause it to seize up.
Yes, but regular chocolate needs to be tempered to set properly. If you don't temper the chocolate, it melts very easily and has a dull, soft look and texture. Because of this, you might also have a hard time getting the cake bites out of the mold.
Candy melts are easier because they don’t require tempering and set up firm and glossy.
Be very gentle when adding your cake mix to your molds and don’t push down or overfill. You really don’t need to push down hard or even at all.
Also, make sure the chocolate around the edges and top of the mold is thick enough. It can help to do a double coat of chocolate around just the edges of the molds.
If you’re still having issues, letting the mold sit out at room temperature for a few minutes after removing from the fridge and before filling and un-molding can help combat cracking.
Refrigerator storage: Store finished heart cake bites in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Let them sit at room temperature for a few minutes before serving for the best texture.
Freezing: Uncoated cake bites freeze well for up to 2 weeks. Freeze them in a single layer until firm, then transfer to a freezer-safe container or bag.
💕More Valentine’s Day Dessert Recipes
Heart Cake Bites
Equipment
- Heart Silicone Mold
- Spoon or Paint Brush
- Knife or Offset Spatula
- Letter Cookie Press (optional)
- Red Candy Colors Food Coloring (optional)
INGREDIENTS
- 8 x 8 in Cake Baked and Cooled
- 2 tbsp Frosting up to 4 tbsp
- 24 oz Candy Melts
Instructions
- Melt your chocolate according to the instructions on the package.
- You can also melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl in the oven on the lowest setting. It takes about 20-30 minutes to melt 12 oz of chocolate.
- Once the chocolate is melted, add 1-2 tsp of melted chocolate to each heart and spread around using a paint brush, spoon, or other utensil. After you've spread the frosting along the sides of the mold, you can shake the mold to get it even.
- The amount of chocolate you will need per heart needed will vary depending on the size of your silicone molds.
- If necessary, add more chocolate to the edges of the heart molds as those are common areas that can break when removing the hearts.
- Be sure to view the heart molds from all different sides and angles. Its easy to miss spots and then the hearts break when removed.
- Let chill in fridge 5-10 minutes until hard.
- While the chocolate hardens, make the cake mix by adding the frosting to the cake and mix using a spatula or your hands. It should come together when you press it but not be too wet with frosting. Remember you need way less frosting than you think. If it’s dry add a bit more frosting, 1 tsp at a time.
- Remove from the mold from the fridge and add 1-2 tsp of cake mix to each heart leaving room from at the top for more chocolate. Again the exact amount of cake mix can vary depending on the mold.
- Spoon another teaspoon of chocolate on the cake mix in the molds and using a bench scraper or knife scrape the chocolate chocolate off the top of the mold.
- Let harden. Once the chocolate has completely hardened, gently remove the hearts from the silicone mold.
Adding Words (optional)
- If adding sweatheart conversations, create the word in the stamp, making sure the letters are backwards so they'll stamp the correct way.
- You always do a practice stamp on a paper towel to ensure they are lined up correctly.
- Candy colors stay the best as they are oil based food coloring so it doesn't slide off the plastic stamp. They take longer to dry so try not to add too much food coloring to the stamp. You can also use an edible setting spray to seal it once stamped.
- Line up the stamp where you want it and gently press down on the heart. Try not to push too hard or it can break the heart.
- If it messes up, you can wipe it off and stamp again. But, conversation candy hearts tend to not be prefect, so I the think it adds to the authenticity if the stamps also are not all perfect.
- Let dry and enjoy.
Notes
- You can use any cake or frosting recipe for these.
- Check out this cakesicle post for tons of tips and tricks for using silicone molds.
- Do not add liquid or gel food coloring to white chocolate or it will seize up and get grainy. If you want hearts in a specific color buy chocolate melts in that color of use candy coloring which is oil based food coloring.
- Do not thin out the chocolate. The thicker chocolate helps ensure the sides don't break.
- Make sure the words are backwards in the stamp so they'll stamp opposite the way you enter them. You always do a practice stamp on a paper towel to ensure they are lined up correctly.
- If adding words, candy colors stay the best as it is oil based food coloring so it doesn't slide off the plastic (but they take longer to dry and are a pain to clean off the stamp – so beware).
- You can use an edible sealant if you're going to be transporting these.
- These will last a day at room temperature or up to three days in the fridge.
Sophia Assunta says
This is such a fun Valentine’s day recipe! If you love cake pops I hope you’ll give it a try!!