Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! If you follow my blog you know I love a themed dessert, so I was so excited to share these adorable Copycat Little Debbie Valentine Cakes! As kids we weren’t allowed to eat a lot of processed food or sugar (probably why I was so drawn to becoming a food blogger primarily sharing dessert recipes haha) so when we were able to get a Little Debbie cake at lunch or a friend’s house, it was like the best treat I’ve ever had. They’ve always been a special treat for me so making them homemade was a no brainer! This recipe is super simple and although does take some time for assembly, they’re totally worth the time!
RECIPE TIPS:
- Use room temperature ingredients: When baking you always want to use room temperature ingredients unless specified not to. This will help to ensure the ingredients are easily incorporated.
- Sheet pans: For this recipe you will divide the batter into two separate 1/2 sheet pans. The batter will be thin but trust the process! You want each layer thin because they will be stacked.
- Freeze the cakes: Once you assemble the cakes with the filling you are going to want to freeze them until solid. Do not skip this step! If they’re soft they will move around it will be so much harder to work with!
- Almond bark: This is an artificial chocolate made with vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter and is super easy to melt. If you prefer you can use real white chocolate but it can be temperamental, seize up and not work as a coating for these cakes. You can typically find this in any grocery store in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips and baking chocolate.
- The pink topping: For the coating you will use almond bark which you can typically find in the baking aisle. You can dye this chocolate coating but you have to use gel food coloring. If you use anything water based the chocolate will seize. If you’re using and your chocolate starts to harden in the bowl, simply reheat in the microwave for 20 second intervals until melted 🙂
- White topping: Before dying the almond bark white I set aside 1/2 – 1 cup of it to leave white and use for the drizzle on top!
- Cookie cutter: For this recipe I use a 3 inch heart shaped cookie cutter. I ordered this set and used the second from the largest!
I don’t typically use boxed cake mix in my homemade recipes but for this one I wanted to replicate the original Little Debbie flavor as closely as possible! I’ve always thought that boxed or store bought cake has a specific taste (which I do enjoy 🙂 ) and it’s hard to replicate with 100% homemade recipes. Don’t skip the boxed cake mix, but if you’re in a pinch you can also use yellow mix!
This recipe is so easy to make and super adorable. If you end up trying them, please leave a rating and comment below! For other Valentine’s Day dessert ideas click here!
Copycat Little Debbie Valentines Cakes
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ⅓ cups water
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup full fat sour cream
For the filling:
- 7 oz marshmallow creme you can also use marshmallow fluff
- ¾ cup salted butter room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- 2-4 tbsp heavy cream room temperature
For the coating:
- 32 oz almond bark
- 3 tbsp crisco
- pink gel food dye it must be gel based or the chocolate can seize
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350° and spray and line with parchment paper 2 half sheet pans (18×13-inch). In the bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand held mixer, mix together the boxed cake mix, sugar, water, eggs, vanilla and oil until combined, about 1 minute. Add in the flour, salt and sour cream and mix on medium until incorporated and there aren't any lumps, 2-3 minutes.
- Divide the batter evenly between both pans and smooth. These cakes will be thin! Bake for 15-18 minutes or until completely cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool at room temperature for 30 minutes before refrigerating for 30-60 minutes.
For the filling:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand held mixer beat the marshmallow creme and butter on medium high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add in the powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and 2 tbsp of heavy cream or milk. Mix on medium speed until smooth and add additional heavy cream until it reaches desires consistency. You want it spreadable but not too thin.
For assembly:
- Once the cake has cooled cut out 32 hearts using around a 3 inch cookie cutter. Spread the filling on top of half of the hearts and top with another heart. Place on a jelly roll sheet pan lined with wax paper or parchment paper and freeze for 1 hour.
For the coating:
- In a large heatproof bowl melt the almond bark, 30 seconds at a time mixing in between, until totally melted. Stir in the crisco until smooth. Remove ½-1 cup of the white almond bark and add to a separate heat proof bowl for the decorations. Mix about ½ tsp of pink gel color food dye into the larger bowl of almond bark and allow to cool for 3-5 minutes before dipping in the heart cakes.
To decorate:
- Dip the frozen cakes completely into the pink melted chocolate and place onto a cookie rack covered in wax paper or parchment paper. Allow to set for 10 minutes before drizzling on the leftover white chocolate in random circles to create design.
It’s hard to find marshmallow fluff on the West Coast. Can you use marshmallow cream?
Hi! Yes you can use them interchangeably!
Hi Denise,
I’m on the West Coast too. Check your local Walmart. I find it in every store I’ve been to. I hope this helps.
Shonda W
These look great! Can you use candy melts or other candy coating instead of almond bark?
Hi Tiffany, yes you can use either!
Hello,
Is the crisco the shortening kind that’s thick or the oil?
I use the thick crisco and it melts into the chocolate!
I tried your recipe and I had so much trouble cutting out the hearts with metal cookie cutters. Every time I cut into cake it would stick to cutter. Maybe I did something wrong? Still tasted good
Thanks
Hey there! I had the same problem, so I decided to lightly coat the cookie cutter with coconut oil spray, and that fixed the problem for me. Hope this helps!
This is a great tip!
How to you store these?
Okay. I was able to problem solve up until the part where I dunk the cake. Please can you tell me how to dunk it so that it is even like in your photos? Doesn’t stick to soon or spatula or fork?
Thanks!
I took a potato masher and loaded the cake onto it (the handle up vertically and the metal end facing down, placing the cake flat on the metal end). I took a silicone laddle (you can always use a measuring cup) and poured the melted chocolate on top and gently shook any excess amounts of coating back into the pot. I used a cake spatula to transfer the coated cakes on a cooling rack to dry. Once dried, I lightly dipped the bottoms of the cakes with my hands, shook off any extra chocolate, and placed onto parchment paper. For a clean look, you can trim any extra chocolate around the bottoms with a sharp, warm knife once the chocolate has completely cooled and hardened.
This is a good method, thank you for sharing!
I use a large fork and you really want to let all the excess chocolate drip off! I find it’s easier the harder the hearts are, so definitely freeze before dipping. Also you want to make sure your chocolate is the right consistency. If it’s too thick it won’t easily cover all the sides. Add 1 tbsp extra of crisp to the melted chocolate to make sure it’s thin enough to run down and cover the sides. Once they harden you can use a sharp knife to cut off any extra around the edges!
Thank you for your reply. Sooo I know what I did wrong. I thought I had to completely dip the cake in the chocolate. If I understand correctly you want us to just do a pour over? This makes more sense. Please confirm.
These are great. Adding butter to the almond bark made it a mashed potato consistency. I had to go out and buy more. 🙁 it also took us like a total of 4 hours with letting the cakes cool, freezing, and cooking/decorating.
My kids had a blast making them so it’s worth it in the end.
Agree, this same thing happened to me too. Clearly butter is not a suitable replacement for crisco as the recipe suggests.
Can I use a semi sweet chocolate instead of whit chocolate
Yes but it doesn’t tend to melt as well!
How fun! Currently in the creme process and about to freeze! How are these stored after they’re made?
Thanks!
Turned out amazing. I used my sourdough white cake recipe. And Chosen brand shortening. I did a white chocolate drizzle for the top. And my customers loved them.
just a heads up, making these for the second time this year, I found another website passing your recipe as their own: https://thesoccermomblog.com/valentine-heart-cakes/comment-page-1/#comment-125169
just a heads up.