Today at Light and Tasty we tackle a great topic: recipes from the heart. A topic that for the second week in a row has left me in crisis over which recipe to choose, because I have so many heart recipes! 😄 Fortunately, my son’s birthday came around, for which I made (again) one of the desserts I often whip out in times of need, a cake that is undoubtedly one of my heart recipes (for many reasons and not just because it’s heart-shaped): the heart-shaped cake without a mold.

This heart-shaped cake is a cold cake, a staple of our family occasions when I find myself running late (which is practically always!) because I’ve worked late or due to a thousand other endemic issues at my house (and it’s no coincidence that I never let the fridge run out of cream!).

And no, even this last birthday didn’t escape the last-minute cake karma. This time too, I started making the cake when I was already running late, with anxiety, telling myself “I’ll never make it” while constantly checking the clock, and then having to resort to the freezer to chill it faster. Help, maybe I should call it my heart-stopping heart recipe? 😄😂

Okay, enough with my jokes… let’s talk about serious things. 😀 The photos.

The photos I’ll show you are of two different preparations; the recipe is the same (though they look so different from each other!) with only the chocolate/cocoa variant.

First, I’ll show you the photo of the first version: the heart-shaped coffee and coconut cake with chocolate chips that I made for Valentine’s Day:

The second photo (next photo) is of the heart cake with unsweetened cocoa made for my son’s birthday, the cake that made me decide to write this recipe, although it’s a photo that gave me a hard time because it was dinner time, it was pitch dark, and I was in a hurry to put the cake in the freezer; the lights reflected on the cream, and that sea of cocoa, which I had the brilliant idea of spreading on the plate, came out all blurred… ommmmm 😅 ahhhh how hard life is for those who don’t have photography in their blood! 😅

But deep down, maybe it’s true that I have more fun cooking (and photographing) this way! 😁

I’ll wait for you after the photo for the recipe!

⏰ ⏰ ⏰

heart-shaped cake without a mold with cocoa

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Cheap
Rest time: 1 Hour
Preparation time: 45 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: No-Bake
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

Reading the ingredients you’ll notice it’s more or less the same cold coconut and coffee cake you already know (and in which I already anticipated this heart shape 😊).

But in this recipe today, more than the ingredients, I want to focus on the heart shape without a mold. You’ll see that it only takes a few simple steps to achieve a heart cake that is very easy to make. And it’s an idea that can be applied to other desserts (such as tiramisu).

☝ With these ingredients, you get a 2-layer cake for 4 servings.

12 ladyfingers
150 ml coffee (about 3 cups)
1 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp grated coconut
chocolate chips or cocoa (as desired)

Tools

Mixer
Liquid Measuring Cup
Knife
Sugar Sifter
Plate

Steps

Place the 6 ladyfingers for the first layer on a plate (the same one on which the cake will be served) and arrange them in such a way as to represent a heart.
As you can see in the following photo, the heart is obtained simply, it only takes two moves:
– break one of the ladyfingers in half
– and trim the tip of the most protruding ladyfinger on the right side of the heart (i.e., to your right, looking at it).
The cut tip will then need to be placed on the opposite side (the piece is clearly visible in the photo).
There you go, the ladyfinger heart is already sketched.
👉 Then, after soaking the ladyfingers with coffee, the heart shape can be adjusted to taste: once softened, the ladyfingers can be gently pressed along the edge of the heart shape, using the back of a spoon or a knife.
Prepare the coffee and let it cool, meanwhile whip the cream.
👉 I didn’t add sugar to the cream, but if desired, you can add it; in this case, use powdered sugar (to be poured into the cream before whipping).
Soak the ladyfingers with coffee.
👉 You can soak them using a teaspoon or by taking them one at a time and dipping them in the cup containing the coffee. But my advice is to use a spout dispenser to avoid dripping coffee on the plate.
Divide the whipped cream into two parts.
Combine the coconut with one of the two parts of cream.
Cover the first layer of coffee-soaked ladyfingers with the coconut cream.
👉 I preferred to use coconut only in the central filling, but of course, you can add it to the second layer as well if desired.
Scatter chocolate chips on the cream as desired.
Repeat the steps by adding the second layer of ladyfingers, soaking them with coffee, and then covering them with the remaining whipped cream on both the surface and the edge.
Smooth the surface with a cake spatula or a long-bladed knife.
Decorate the edge of the heart with chocolate chips, making them adhere to the cream.
Or decorate the edge with a dusting of cocoa.
😉 Using either chocolate chips or cocoa, limiting the decoration to just the edge helps better outline the heart shape and conceal any imperfections in the shape.
As I mentioned, this heart shape made with ladyfingers can be used for other types of desserts too, like traditional tiramisu or strawberry or berry tiramisu, using fruit to decorate the heart’s edge in this case.
Other variations to the recipe that I suggest:
– soak the ladyfingers with barley coffee to avoid caffeine,
– use almond or hazelnut granules instead of chocolate,
– omit the coconut if not liked,
– turn the dessert into a variant of the birthday cake or the filled cake by soaking the ladyfingers with fruit juice and using cream and jam for the filling.
Moreover:
– you can make a taller cake with three layers, or four (I wouldn’t dare more, to avoid a wobbly skyscraper effect 😀),
– or, conversely, make a low cake with just one layer of ladyfingers and one layer of cream, suitable for just two servings (tested and it comes out very well).
Of course, in both cases, the amount of cream and coffee will need to be adjusted to the number of ladyfingers used more or less.
Sure, it’s a cake that yields 4 servings; for a cake, it’s not very big. I haven’t yet had the need to make a large heart-shaped cake, but you never know, it might happen at any time (and if it does, I’ll show you how I decided to arrange the ladyfingers 😉).
For now, if you need to make a large cake and want to use this recipe, try this way:
– make 4 hearts, arrange them with the tips facing inward, and you’ll get a cake… shaped like a four-leaf clover! 😉🍀🍀
Hey, what an idea, maybe I’ll actually try it! 😀