Super easy and delicious Mini Heart Shaped Chocolate Cakes with no dye pink frosting!
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These simple yet delicious mini heart shaped chocolate cakes with pink frosting are perfect to show your love on any special occasion: Valentine's day, anniversary, mother's day, father's day…
If you are looking for more recipe ideas for mother's day brunch, you can check out my AIP mother's day brunch recipes. You will find anything from Sweet potato breakfast hash (AIP, paleo) to Banana Carrot Muffins and Coconut Mango Sago Tapioca pudding.
⭐ Why you'll love this recipe
- These Mini Heart Shaped Chocolate Cakes are easy to make.
- This romantic treat is packed with vegetables.
- This recipe is gluten free, coconut free, vegan, paleo and AIP.
📖 Ingredient notes
For the mini cakes
- Pumpkin purée. You can either use canned pumpkin purée or homemade pumpkin purée. I just take unseasoned cooked pumpkin or butternut squash and put it in the blender with the other liquid ingredients. If you are not familiar with butternut squash, you can read my complete guide to butternut squash to find out everything about it.
- Arrowroot. It is a starch. See below for substitutions.
- Maple syrup. Make sure to use pure maple syrup.
- Vanilla extract. If you are on AIP, make sure to use AIP compliant vanilla extract.
- Carob powder or cacao powder. If you are on AIP make sure to use carob powder.
- Tigernut flour (or almond flour for those who are not on AIP nor nut free). If you don't know what tigernut flour is and want to learn all about it, you can read my post What is tigernut flour.
If you are on AIP and still in the elimination phase, you have to use tigernut flour (because almond flour is not AIP compliant). Those who are not on AIP nor allergic to nuts can use almond flour instead of tigernut flour.
For the no dye pink frosting
- Cooked red beetroot. In France we can easily buy ready cooked beetroot. If you can't find ready cooked beetroot or if you prefer to cook it yourself and you want to know how to cook it, you can read all about it in my complete guide to beetroot.
- Maple syrup. Again, make sure to use pure maple syrup.
For the quantities and complete list of ingredients for these Heart Shaped Chocolate Cakes, please see the recipe card below.
💭 Substitutions
- Arrowroot substitutions. If you are not cassava intolerant, you can substitute it with tapioca starch (also called tapioca flour). If you are not on AIP nor Paleo diets: you can use potato starch or corn starch instead of arrowroot.
- Maple syrup. If you want to reduce the maple syrup quantity in this recipe, I suggest replacing it with the same quantity of oil of your choice, water or coconut milk
🥣 Step by step instructions
For the mini cakes
In a blender combine the maple syrup, pumpkin puree, lemon juice (or ACV), oil and vanilla. Blend until well combined.
In a large bowl, combine the tigernut flour, arrowroot, baking soda and carob powder. Stir.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined.
Line or lightly oil a heart muffin pan. Fill each cup with batter. The number of cakes you will have depends on the size of your pan (as you can see I got 4 rather large individual heart shaped cakes).
Bake for about 25 minutes. To make sure that they are cooked, insert a thin bladed knife into the centre of one cake, the knife should come out clean. And voilà! Let them cool down before removing them from the pan. You can eat them like that or you can add a pink frosting.
For the no dye pink frosting
Put all the ingredients for the frosting (beetroot, water, maple syrup and oil) in a small blender.
Blend until well combined.
Transfer frosting in a piping bag.
Once the cakes are cooled down and out of the pan cover with frosting using the piping bag. You can also draw a message with the frosting as seen on the picture. I recommend frosting the cakes right before serving, this way they will keep a more fresh look. Bon appétit !
👩🏻🍳Top tips
Serve those heart shaped chocolate cakes on a plate and add a personal message with the pink frosting.
💬 Recipe FAQs
Yes! You can freeze them. Wait for them to reach room temperature before putting them in the freezer. Though I recommend freezing these cakes without the frosting on top.
Yes. You can prepare the cakes (alone, without the frosting) several days in advance and then freeze them.
Or you can bake them the day before. Although you can eat them up to 3 days after baking them by keeping them in the fridge, I think that, especially for a special occasion, it's always better to eat them as fresh as possible. So I wouldn't recommend keeping them 3 days in the fridge before serving them on the big day.
You can also prepare the frosting the day before. Keep it in the fridge, in an air tight container.
I recommend adding the frosting right before serving, to prevent the beautiful pink color to go darker with oxidation. Again, you can of course still eat them if you have some leftovers. Those tips are here to make sure you get the most fresh and beautiful cakes on the big day.
🍪 Other celebration recipes you might like
Did you like this recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 on the recipe card and leave a nice review below! Tag @gohealthywithbea on Instagram and hashtag #gohealthywithbea! Also, let's stay connected on social media and continue to cook together! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
📋 Recipe / Recette
Heart Shaped Chocolate Cakes (AIP, paleo, vegan)
Equipment
Ingredients
For the heart shaped cakes
- 250 grams (1 cup) pumpkin purée
- 150 grams (1 cup + ⅓ cup) tigernut flour if you are not on AIP nor nut intolerant, you can use almond flour instead of tigernut flour
- 50 grams (¼ cup + 1Tbsp) arrowroot see notes below for substitutions
- 4 Tablespoons carob powder (or 3 tablespoon unsweetened cacao powder if you are not on AIP)
- 60 millilitres (¼ cup) maple syrup see notes if you want to reduce quantity
- 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the pink frosting
- 75 grams (½ cup) cooked red beetroot
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
For the heart shaped cakes
- Preheat oven to 360° F (180° C)
- In a large bowl, combine the tigernut flour, arrowroot, baking soda and carob powder. Stir.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined.
- Bake for about 25 minutes. To make sure that they are cooked, insert a thin bladed knife into the centre of one cake, the knife should come out clean. And voilà! Let them cool down before removing them from the pan. You can eat them like that or you can add a pink frosting.
For the pink frosting
- Put all the ingredients for the frosting (beetroot, water, maple syrup and oil) in a small blender. Blend until well combined. Transfer in a piping bag. Once the cakes are cooled down and out of the pan cover with frosting using the piping bag. You can also draw a message with the frosting as seen on the picture. I recommend frosting the cakes right before serving, this way they will keep a more fresh look.Bon appétit !
Notes
You can also prepare the frosting the day before. Keep it in the fridge, in an air tight container. I recommend adding the frosting right before serving, to prevent the beautiful pink color to go darker with oxidation. Again, you can of course still eat them if you have some leftovers. Those tips are here to make sure you get the most fresh and beautiful cakes on the big day.
Ashton
Love this recipe. I will definitely bookmark your blog.
Crosky
Hello Bea,
If you don't have heart-shaped or other type of pan for individual cakes and instead use a square 8x8 baking pan (US measurement/pan), do you need to adjust the baking time? Thanks!
gohealthywithbea
Bonjour Crosky! Of course you can use any other kind of pan if you don't have a pan for individual cakes. But I'm afraid that a square 8x8 baking pan might be a little too big for this recipe. So you can either double the quantities or use a rectangular 4x8 pan if you have one. And cook for about 10 more minutes.
Nathan
What an interesting recipe! I don't personally have any dietary restrictions, but some of these ingredients are so unique and things I haven't used before, so I may just have to try this out just for that!
gohealthywithbea
Bonjour Nathan. Thank you for stopping by! To be honest with you, I discovered most of those unique ingredients when I had to change my diet. And in a way, I'm glad I have those dietary restrictions because it has pushed me out of my comfort zone in the kitchen! So I encourage you to try those ingredients. And if you do, do not hesitate to tell me about your experience!