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The Kitchen Paper

24 January, 2012 By Mary

How to Bake Heart-Shaped Cakes in Soup Cans

I’ll admit to being a bit girly in my love of heart-shaped things. I have some heart-shaped ramekins. I have a heart-shaped silicon muffin tin. I have heart-shaped cookie cutters. Now I have heart-shaped mini cake pans – made from soup cans.

I thought of this idea a few weeks ago but was lazy in actually getting to it because I thought I might not have the necessary equipment. I envisioned vices, sharp edges, tin foil, marbles – I really imagined a variety of scenarios that seemed a bit out of reach for me; however, this proved WAY easier than I thought. It’s so simple: use your hands. My creative juices were definitely flowing this weekend and so after trying a multitude of sketchy and dangerous tactics (e.g. big knife, blade up, soup can between my knees, and a tea towel) I was happy to discover than my good ol’ 10 fingers did a marvelous job of accomplishing a heart shaped can.

You can use a variety of sizes – I made some out of normal 14.5 oz cans, and some out of 29 oz cans. Both worked really well, and the bigger ones give you a bit more flexibility when decorating (and they’re great for sharing with someone else!).

Step 1:

Pick the right can. It cannot be the newfangled can with a weird bottom – it has to have the same kind of bottom as the top (so you can remove it with a can opener). Usually cheaper brands use this kind of can – I found some of my diced tomatoes and coconut milk cans were the best.

Step 2:

Cut off both the top and the bottom of the can. I invested in a nifty safe cut can opener as to avoid sharp edges – it makes a very clean (smooth) cut. I also thoroughly washed the cans at this point.

Step 3:

By pressing down on a hard surface (like your kitchen counter), flatten the sides slightly to form a point on one side of the can. I tended to do this on the seam of the can (although I’m fairly sure it makes no difference).

Step 4:

This is the most complicated part. Position your hands like the picture below, with your hands cupping the can. I started by gently pressing down with my fingertips touching, in a line, and making a faint – but as straight as possible – line down the can. At that point I took some pliers and made a slight V on the edges (which are harder to bend precisely), before really using my hands to deepen the V into a heart.

Step 5:

Tightly cover the bottom of each can with foil. I was skeptical, but it worked great for me.

Step 6:

Make any cake or cupcake recipe, pour it into your buttered and floured cans (1/2 or 2/3 up is plenty), and bake until a cake tester comes out clean! It took much longer than I anticipated for mine – for which I’ll post the recipe soon! To get them out easily, just take the foil off, run a butter knife around the edges, and let them slide out the bottom. Don’t worry about any mutations in the cans, they can be easily hidden with frosting.

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Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: Cake, DIY, heart-shaped, hearts, How To, Soup Cans

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Julia @The Roasted R says

    24 January, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    This is so clever! I never would have thought to do that with a can…very sustainable and crafty of you!

  2. Choc Chip Uru says

    27 January, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    What a wonderful idea! This is such a creative way to bake and recycle 😀

    Cheers

    Choc Chip Uru

    Latest: Fresh Fruit Tart

Trackbacks

  1. Decorated Dark Chocolate Cookies | Bake Break! says:
    24 January, 2012 at 10:23 am

    […] you liked this post, you might like my How to Bake Heart-Shaped Cakes in Soup Cans […]

  2. Weekly Review 1/22/2012 – 1/28/2012 | Bake Break! says:
    29 January, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    […] How to Bake Heart-Shaped Cakes in Soup Cans A tutorial on how to revamp a soup can to be a heart-shaped cake pan! Teaser for an upcoming post (on the actual cakes!). […]

  3. Red Velvet Anniversary Heart Cakes | Bake Break! says:
    8 February, 2012 at 7:07 am

    […] This was going to post last week, but with the snafu with the site and a busy week at work, it just didn’t happen. So, here it is! Last Monday was my anniversary with Derek, and with Valentine’s day coming up I figured everyone could use these heart-shaped cakes! Not to mention I had to follow up my post on how to bake heart-shaped cakes in soup cans! […]

  4. Upcycle Your Cans 6 Different Ways | BargainMoose Canada says:
    15 August, 2014 at 6:00 pm

    […] DIY idea from Thekitchenpaper.com is a little harder than the others mentioned but still fairly easy. They give you a step by step […]

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About Me

I'm Mary! Thanks for stopping by — welcome to The Kitchen Paper! I develop recipes in Portland, OR when I'm not out exploring the PNW, practicing yoga, or building websites. Read More…

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