Recipe: Cake of Hearts by Mietta by Rosemary

This story appears in our July 2025 Nostalgia issue, presented by Up, where we asked 13 professional bakers to recreate cakes from the iconic The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book.

The cake

I made a seven-layer red velvet and raspberry cake in a heart-shaped tin – there are some great recipes here you can adapt. Or swap in your favourite go-to cake flavour.

The icing

If you’re going with red velvet, cream cheese frosting is always a fabulous idea – you could even add dark chocolate to enhance the flavour. Otherwise, use any icing that suits your style. The thickness is your own preference – it just needs a base coat to cover with strawberry shimmer. But if you love frosting, feel free to layer it on.

The decoration

To coat the cake, I used dehydrated strawberries that I blitzed and combined with red shimmer dust for a vibrant finish. (You can find dehydrated fruit at most gourmet grocers or specialty food stores.) Using gloves, hold your cake on a cake board over a bowl with strawberry shimmer mix. Apply by sprinkling all over the top and around the sides till the cake is totally covered. For the topping, I used fresh raspberries.

The love hearts

I tempered white chocolate to create the hearts, but you could simply melt chocolate and pour it into moulds. Once chilled, pop them out and paint with a pastry brush to match your decor. I used 100 per cent food-grade shimmer dust, blending copper and pink to give it an extra zhoosh. You can find food colouring and edible shimmer dust at Spotlight or other specialty baking supply shops.

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The cake of hearts recipe first appeared in the The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, published in 1980.