Sacred Heart of Jesus Cake

Looking for a simple Sacred Heart of Jesus activity to do with your kids? Why not try this delicious Sacred Heart of Jesus cake! While your intention is to bring to mind the love of Jesus, your kids will also love you for this!

Feast of the Sacred Heart

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most loved devotions of the Catholic Church. The Solemnity is a movable feast, celebrated nineteen days after Pentecost Sunday. In 2024, this is Friday 7 June. However, so special is this devotion, that the Church dedicates the entire month of June to the Sacred Heart. So this month is a great time to ponder and celebrate Jesus’ unquenchable love with your children.

Sacred Heart of Jesus cake

A favourite tradition that my children anticipate in June is the Sacred Heart of Jesus cake. Not only is it a delight for them, it is also a great talking point about the history of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (the French nun and mystic responsible for spreading the devotion) and the meaning behind the Sacred Heart image.

Three methods to make a heart-shaped cake

There are a few of ways to create a heart-shaped cake:

Heart-shaped cake tin: This is the easiest method, as it does not require you to do any cutting and shaping. If you do purchase a heart-shaped cake tin, it can also be used for other feasts, such as the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, and St. Valentine’s Day.
Heart template: Cut a paper template of a heart. Use this to cut your cake into a heart shape. The downside of this method is that you will discard the trimmings.
Round cake tin: Bake the cake in a round tin and shape it into a heart after cooking. Since this method has more steps, it is demonstrated below.

Method Using a Round Cake

Note: The pictures in this tutorial show a double layered cake for extra height. If you choose to do this, simply do the following steps twice and place the two cakes on top of each other before decorating.

Supplies

Round cake
Serrated knife
Buttercream or icing of choice (You will also need enough to decorate the cake. See ‘Decorate the cake’). This is a recipe we use.

Trim the cake

Bake your cake of choice. This is a recipe we use.
Once out of the oven, allow the cake to cool.
If the cake has domed, trim the top of the cake with a serrated knife to level it.
Mark a cross into the cake, and use this as a guide for cutting the point of the heart. Make two diagonal cuts along the edges of the cake to create the point (see picture).

Make the heart

Place the cake onto the serving plate.
Spread some buttercream on the round edge of the cake and adhere the two pieces you trimmed off earlier. You will need to mould the pieces so the straight edges conform to the curve of the main cake (see picture).

Decorate the Cake

Ingredients

Buttercream or icing of choice. This is a recipe we use.
500g strawberries, halved
Orange, peeled and segmented (about 4 segments needed)
Dark chocolate, melted

Decorate

Coat the entire cake with buttercream or icing of choice, ensuring you create sharp edges to emphasise the heart shape.
Place a layer of halved strawberries on the top to create a red heart.
Gently situate the segmented oranges on the cake to create a flame.
Very slowly, drizzle the melted chocolate to create thorns across the heart (see pictures for all of the steps).

Make the time of coming together to share the dessert that bit ‘extra’ by:

setting the table beautifully, with the fancy dishes and a statue or image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus;
singing a hymn which speaks of Jesus’ great love (Love Divine, All Loves Excelling and many others can be found on YouTube);
reading a short explanation of the devotion or the twelve promises of the Sacred Heart as given to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.