homemade Little debbie heart cakes

I can’t be the only one who gets hit by a wave of nostalgia whenever I see Little Debbie heart snack cakes get put on the shelves.

Back in elementary school, Valentine’s Day class parties were simply not complete without a box of these!

Taste Test

My sister, Mollie, is planning to throw a Valentine’s “class” party for our homeschooled nephews (read about it here!) So naturally I ran to the grocery store to pick up a box of Little Debbies!

I hadn’t tried these in years so I broke open a package to taste test….ya’ll. I would be lying if I said they didn’t taste like straight wax and chemicals mixed with sugar.

They’re from a box so I know I shouldn’t really expect more. But I REALLY wanted these to taste the way I remembered them in childhood.

TO THE KITCHEN!

Ingredients

1 batch of white wedding cake batter

1 batch marshmallow fluff buttercream

Ghirardelli white chocolate melting wafers (can use almond bark or chocolate chips but you will need to thin those much more with crisco or heavy cream)

Red dye

Crisco or heavy cream to thin chocolate

Cutting Little Debbie Heart Cakes

I baked the cake batter in a regular metal half sheet pan. I then cut them out using a small 1.5inch heart shaped cookie cutter. I then cut each of those cakes in half and filled with frosting. They turned out to be the exact height and size as the original Little Debbie heart cakes!

This honestly made A LOT of little cakes (like….3-4 dozen). This recipe can be easily halved by following a few tips below:

Half the batter and bake in a 1/4 metal sheet pan instead of the 1/2 sheet pan. If you only have a 1/2 metal sheet pan -no worries! You can just lessen the baking time. Your cake will be thinner so you can just skip the step above where we cut the hearts horizontally to fill with buttercream. They’ll be all ready to sandwich with buttercream once you cookie cut them!

Half the buttercream and chocolate coating recipe.

Frosting the Heart Cakes

I used a marshmallow fluff buttercream! It was perfectly creamy and sweet!

Using a heavy duty ziplock with the tip cut off, I began piping a thin layer of frosting onto the bottom half of a heart cake. I then sandwiched the two halves together and put them on a lined baking sheet.

VERY IMPORTANT: Once you’re done sandwiching all your heart cakes together you need to freeze them before coating them in chocolate! This is vital to help the cakes not fall apart.

Coating our Homemade Heart Cakes with Chocolate

I personally loved using the Wilton white candy melts while adding my own red dye so that I could fully control the color.

I thinned the candy melts with a little heavy cream, but you could also use crisco. Just be aware that by thinning the candy melts you heart cakes will be a little softer and not as “shell like”. I personally liked the softer coating. It makes it easier to bite and cut into!

I placed my chilled heart cakes on a wire rack and poured the melted chocolate on top. I picked them up with 2 forks and tried to tap off any excess chocolate. I placed them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.

Once I had several done, I placed the baking sheet into the fridge so they could harden. Next it was time to drizzle!

Drizzling Homemade Little Debbie Heart Cakes

I used the same Wilton white chocolate wafters to drizzle the design on top. I thinned them with a little heavy cream, but I would probably thin them a bit more next time!

These don’t look perfect, but honestly, neither do the boxed Little Debbies! So I think we did pretty good!

Final Thoughts

These Little Debbie copycat heart cakes were a HIT with the family. My nephews loved them at their little homeschooled “class” valentines day party!

I will be honest in saying these were VERY time consuming. Not something I’d make every all the time, but a very fun treat for this holiday!

Find more inspiration from our Valentine’s party on our blog post here.