Love is in the air! And nothing says Valentine’s Day better than chocolate! Better yet, how about a homebaked cake made just for someone special? What’s nice about this cake other than its simplicity, is its size. You have the option of making either one large cake or one mini cake like I did here. This way you can decide how much or how little you want. Don’t fret either way the cake freezes well, so you can always save some for a rainy day.
This cake reminds me of being a kid. Our school used to hold a bake sale every Valentine’s Day (do they still do fun things like that?) and there would be so many heart shaped cakes, bright pink and red cookies and loads of baking. I always thought it was so interesting to see all the different varieties of homebaked treats. If there was a school bake sale I’d be making this chocolate Valentine’s sheet cake; it’s simple, cute and would be enjoyed by all! Who doesn’t like chocolate and cream cheese icing?!!
Ingredients
This mini chocolate sheet cake is super simple to whip up. The secret ingredient is coffee! Even if you’re not a fan of coffee I’ll bet you’ll enjoy it in your cake! You won’t particularly taste the coffee, but it brings out the chocolate flavours and helps intensify them. I buy my coffee in bulk at Bulk Barn Foods where I can choose from so many different flavours. You can even grind your own from coarse to fine!
- All-purpose flour
- Cocoa powder
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar & icing sugar
- Milk
- Coffee
- Cream cheese
- Eggs
- Baking powder & baking soda
- Salt
- Vanilla extract
Substitutions
If you really don’t want to use coffee in the recipe you can substitute it for warm water.
Tips to Make the Perfect Chocolate Valentine’s Cake
- Make sure your butter, eggs and milk are at room temperature. This helps to incorporate your ingredients to ensure that you don’t overmix the batter and affect the overall texture. It also makes a big difference when you are adding warm or hot liquid to the batter. For example, if the milk is cold and you add a hot liquid to the batter it will seize or firm up the batter, affecting the texture and causing you to overmix in order to incorporate everything properly.
- For a perfectly fluffy cake, sift your flour and cocoa powder. Cocoa powder has a tendency to clump up and flour can as well. If you don’t want tiny clumps throughout your cake take the time to first sift.
- Avoid adding boiling, hot coffee to your batter. Make your coffee before you start baking and let it sit until it’s lukewarm. I like to add it to my milk so it brings the temperature down quicker.
How To Make A Mini Chocolate Valentine’s Cake
Step One: Prep your dry ingredients and set aside. In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and egg white and continue to beat until incorporated. Add vanilla extract. Turn the mixer on low. Alternate the flour mixture and the milk/coffee mixture into your butter mixture in 2 additions and mix until combined. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake for 25 minutes.
Step Two: While the cake cools, make your icing. In a large bowl add cream cheese, butter and icing sugar together. Beat on high until light and fluffy. Remove approx. 3-4 tablespoons of icing into a small bowl. Add 1-2 drops of red food colouring and mix until combined.
Step Three: Once the cake has completely cooled ice the entire cake with the cream cheese icing, making a nice flat surface. Then pipe pink ‘X’s and ‘O’s over the top of the cake in rows.
Step Four: Enjoy!
Mini Chocolate Valentine’s Sheet Cake
This mini sheet cake is the sweetest treat to make for your loved ones for Valentine’s Day. The cake is chocolately, light and airy and topped with a fluffy cream cheese icing. Then it is covered in hugs and kisses. This recipe easily doubles to make a large sheet cake if you need to feed a crowd (see recipe notes).
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 egg white
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup milk, full fat at room temperature
- 1/3 cup hot brewed coffee, extra strong
Cream Cheese IcingÂ
- 1/2 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
- red food colouring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ËšF. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper and grease any exposed sides.
- Make your coffee and set aside.Â
- In a medium sized bowl add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Whisk ingredients until combined and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and egg white and continue to beat until incorporated and pale in colour. Add vanilla extract.
- Add the milk and coffee together.
- Turn the mixer on low. Alternate the flour mixture and the milk/coffee into your butter mixture in 2 additions (just until incorporated). Make sure to scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth out the top.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Let cake cool on a cooling rack.
- Meanwhile, make your icing. In a large bowl add cream cheese, butter and icing sugar together. Beat on high until light and fluffy. Remove approx. 3-4 tablespoons of icing into a small bowl. Add 1-2 drops of red food colouring and mix until combined.
- Once the cake has completely cooled ice the cake with the cream cheese icing, making a nice flat surface. Then pipe pink ‘X’s and ‘O’s over the top of the cake in rows.
- Enjoy.
Notes
You can easily make this into a large sheet cake as well. Use a 9″ x 13″ baking dish and double each ingredient. The only difference is use 3 large eggs.
Store the cake at room temperature in an airtight container or covered in a cake dome. The cake will last up to 3 days or freeze for up to a month.
If you don’t like coffee you can use hot water instead.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 of 12
- Calories: 293
- Sugar: 19.9g
- Sodium: 224mg
- Fat: 17.7g
- Saturated Fat: 10.4g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 29.9g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 5.5g
- Cholesterol: 132mg
FAQ’s
Adding coffee to chocolate cake batter elevates the chocolate flavour within the cake. It will not necessarily make the cake taste like coffee but will add more of a bold chocolate flavour. Coffee and chocolate have similar note profiles and help enhance each other in baking.
If you don’t want to use coffee in your chocolate cake you can easily substitute it for warm water.
Yes, this mini chocolate Valentine’s sheet cake freezes well. Simply place any leftover cake in an airtight container and freeze for up to one month. Let the cake come to room temperature before enjoying.
This blog post has been sponsored by Bulk Barn Canada where you can find all your baking needs! All opinions are my own and I’m so happy to work with brands I love so I can continue to share these recipes with all of you! I hope you guys get to a Bulk Barn soon and try out this recipe.
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