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 (½ or ⅔ 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.