Mini Valentine's Day Cake

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This Mini Valentine’s Day Cake has a hidden candy surprise in the center, making it an absolutely beautiful and extra sweet Valentine’s Day treat for your special someone.

Cake with M&M's pouring out of the middle

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Mini Valentine Cake Recipe with a Candy Surprise

Valentine’s Day is coming and when I was grocery shopping recently, I came across these Valentine colored M&Ms, which inspired me to come up with a recipe for a sweet treat I could make with them. Since I have been looking for a good excuse to use my mini cake pans this mini Valentine’s cake with a hidden chocolate candy surprise is the perfect answer!

One of the things I love most about Valentine’s Day is all the sweet treats that go along with it, and I couldn’t be more excited about this sweet and delicious mini cake. Though I’ve made everything from layered Valentine’s Day Bark (seriously delicious) to White Chocolate Mousse, I have a feeling that this mini cake recipe is going to top them all.

💖 Why We Love This Recipe

Easy: With the hidden candy center, this looks like a fancy cake recipe but with the help of the mini cake pan, it’s as simple as baking a boxed cake mix.
Fun-This cake brings instant smiles the minute you cut into it and the candy center comes spilling out. The kids go crazy over it.
Versatile-You can change it up with any flavor cake, candy or frosting you prefer. I’ve included some tasty suggestions below.
Romantic: This little cake is just the right size for a two-person dessert. The perfect way to end a romantic dinner.

Mini Valentine Cake With M&M's on white stand

🛒Ingredients

Box Cake Mix-plus all the ingredients listed on the box instructions (eggs, water, oil)
Canned Vanilla Buttercream Frosting-you can also use homemade frosting
Valentine M&Ms-or other small candies

👩🏼‍🍳 How to Make a Mini Valentine Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Step 1. Prepare the cake batter and bake the cake mix according to the box directions.

Note: Since one box of mix makes eight mini cakes, I used two cakes to make the cake layers and froze the rest for later.

Step 2. Before you start decorating, use a cake leveler on the bottom of both of the little cakes, just to be sure they’re flat.

Step 3. Next, fill one of the cooled cakes with as much candy as you possibly can. There’s no such thing as too many M&M’s, right?

Step 4. Frost the cake around the candy and place the second one on top.

Step 5. Next, frost the top and the sides of the cakes, then start adding M&Ms. I made stripes of color going around the cake but feel free to use your imagination and decorate it however you like.

Tip: Don’t worry about frosting it neatly…it’ll be covered with M&M’s anyway.

Cake with light pink and dark pink M&M's

Step 6. Finally, you can add a few more M&M’s and some Valentine sprinkles on top.

Valentines Day Cake Variations

Cake: Used regular vanilla cake, because we wanted little white cakes that would make a nice contrast in color with the pink and red candy. But you can use any flavor cake mix you love. Red velvet cake is always a hit.

Candy: The best part of this recipe you can get creative and fill it with anything you’d like. Instead of the M&Ms, you can use skittles, red hots, mini thin mints or any small treats that will fill in the center.

Frosting: We used canned buttercream frosting, but you can use cream cheese frosting or any other flavor frosting you prefer. You can even use homemade frosting if you have a go-to recipe you like to use.

Decorations: Once you have the mini cake frosted, you can decorate it in all sorts of festive ways. For Valentine’s Day, use fresh raspberries, conversation hearts or any type of red or pink candy. You can even skip the candy and use a piping bag to create a little bit of a decorative design along the top edge of the cake.

Can I Use Mini Bundt Pans

In order to hide the candy inside, it requires two flat edges that you can sit on top of each other. But if you don’t want to buy the pan used in this recipe, you can use a mini bundt pan instead.

Then, you can just frost each of the mini Bundt cakes, and fill the center with the candy. The candy won’t be a “surprise,” but it will make a pretty design.

Valentine's Day cake with M&M's pouring out

How Do I Store a Candy Filled Mini Cake?

Because this cake has frosting, you’ll want to keep it stored in the fridge to ensure it stays fresh. It’s not recommended that you freeze this cake once it has been decorated because as it thaws, red and pink from the candy will run onto the frosting.

Want more Valentine’s Day Desserts?

5 from 1 vote