Grinch Cake for Christmas
Have you seen those cakes with the cute little cake shape inside them? I think they are adorable. The first one I ever saw was this Peekaboo pumpkin pound cake by Sheknows. I knew I had to try and make one. Then, time got away from me and I forgot about it. Well, when I was talking to a friend the other day, I blurted out “Grinch Cake!” She said, “What?” Then I explained and she loved the idea.
Ingredients
- 2 Boxes of Pound Cake Mix Whatever the ingredients the box calls for
- Heart Cookie Cutter
- Red and Green Food Gel Color
- Loaf Pan
- Green and Yellow Frosting Pillsbury Blue and Green Funfetti Frosting
- Red Heart Sprinkles - Optional
Instructions
- Mix on box of pound cake mix following the directions on the box. Add a few drops of red food coloring at a time until you get the red color you like.
- I use Wilton "No-Taste Red" because it doesn't taste like red food coloring. It doesn't taste at all so it is perfect for this cake.
- Once the cake is baked, let it cool and then cut the cake into even slices.
- Then, use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out as many hearts as it takes to lay them face to face from one end of the pan to the other end. Make sure it is a snug fit but, leave room at each end for the green cake mix.
- Mix the second cake and add some green food coloring.
- Pour the green batter around the heart cutouts.
- Tap the pan on the counter so the batter will fall down the sides of the hearts.
- Bake it according to the package directions.
- Next, frost the cake with green frosting and add some heart sprinkles.
I came home and made one right away, but it didn’t turn out as I wanted. You see, I followed the recipe from one of those famous Food Network people but it didn’t work. It was sad. The cake tasted great but for some reason, it just didn’t look right.
So I went to the store and bought two boxes of pound cake mix and got to work. I am glad I did because it was the way to go. Yep. The box cake mix made things super easy.
If you are looking for a dessert for Christmas and don’t want to spend a lot of time on it, this is the cake for you. You don’t have to be a Grinch to make or eat a Grinch cake. Just grab a spoon and start mixing.
Supplies for Grinch Cake for Christmas:
2 Boxes of Pound Cake Mix (Whatever the ingredients the box is calling for)
Heart Cookie Cutter
Red and Green Food Gel Color
Loaf Pan
Green and Yellow Frosting (Pillsbury Blue and Green Funfetti Frosting)
Red Heart Sprinkles – Optional
This is a picture of the first cake I made along with the first cookie cutter I used. Well, it didn’t work. So I bought the pound cake mix and tried it again and guess what? It worked! I don’t know what I did wrong the first time, but the second time around worked!!
The first thing you need to do is mix the ingredients for one of the pound cakes and add a little red food coloring to the batter. I used the Wilton “No-Taste Red” because, well, it doesn’t taste like red food coloring. It doesn’t taste at all so it is perfect for this cake.
Once the cake is baked, let it cool and then cut the cake into slices. Then, use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out as many hearts as it takes to lay them face to face from one end of the pan to the other end. Make sure it is a snug fit but leave a little room at each end for the green cake mix.
Now mix the second cake and add some green food coloring. While the cake is baking, cut the rest of the red pound cake hearts so you will have them to bake with later. I froze mine so they will be ready for some early Valentine’s cakes. I also used the food processor to chop up the remaining scraps to use on the base of some cakes and sprinkles on some cupcake icing. Fun right? I don’t waste anything!
Place the green batter around the heart cutouts. Tap the pan on the counter so the batter will fall down the sides of the heart shapes.
Bake it according to the package directions.
The next time I make this cake, I will add those amazing Bake-Even Strips around the pan while it is in the oven to help the cake bake evenly. See how brown the sides are? I am sure it is the food coloring, but the Bake-Even Strips will help control the heat so the sides won’t brown as much.
Anyway, for the frosting, I know that yellow and blue make green because my 2nd-grade teacher told me and I would never forget something that important. I will forget where I parked my car at the grocery store, but I will never forget how to make colors.
I mixed blue and yellow to make the green frosting. You may want to use more yellow than blue for a more “Grinch-like” green.
Next, frost the cake and add some heart sprinkles.
Time to cut that cake and see how much the Grinch’s heart grew. I want to make these in small loaf pans and wrap them in pretty little food-safe cellophane and give them as individual gifts. I just wish I would have thought of this idea sooner. If you want to make Grinch Cookies here’s a recipe for you.
Merry Christmas,
I love this! Thank you so much! I think I’m just going to have to make this for Christmas Day.
Such a fun cake for Christmas. I have made quite a few of these types of cakes, and do find the boxed pound cake to work the best. I’ve even doctored them up by using lemon juice, orange juice, coconut milk, and even chocolate, but the plain cake tastes pretty good on it’s own. I loved your comment about losing your car in the parking lot but never forgetting that yellow and blue make green. Somehow those kinds of things just stick with us over the years.
Lisa, I LOVE this! This Grinch Cake is adorable and it sounds easy to make. I am not sure I’ll have time this year, but I will definitely be baking this one! Thanks for sharing.
Glad you know how to spell “definitely”. It’s amazing how many people misspell it – and that drives me crazy. 🙂
Hi Karen,
I misspell a lot of things! LOL My fingers type faster than my brain processes! LOL 🙂
LOVE the cake and story too! Isn’t it funny how ideas just pop into our heads? Please tell me that you did find your car in the parking lot!
I ADORE this cake!
Your cake looks like so much fun! My (grown up) sons would be thrilled if I set this one on the table.
This is so adorable! It is a Christmas event to watch the, the, the, the Grinch! How fun would this be to serve at that family party?!!
I have wanted to try one of these cakes for a long time. Glad you learned and taught us – will try the pound cake mix – definitely!!
I love the Grinch! I hope you make this cake, hot cocoa and watch it cuddled snuggly on the couch under your favorite blanket with someone you love! 😉
Love it!!! What size heart cutter did you use?
About a 1″ heart cutter. If you have one a little bigger you can squeeze it down some to make it fit. 😉
The recipes would be much better if they could be printed without using 4 or 5 pages.
Hi Cindy,
Ask and you shall receive! I made a printable recipe just for you.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you so much!!!
will be doing this tomorrow, want to practise before Christmas….
Have fun Phyllis! Merry Christmas!
Love this idea. I’m going to make one for my birthday cake! Thank you for sharing.
Happy Birthday Carole! I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!!
Would it be possible to make the heart section out of a cookie dough batter, form it as a heart-profiled log and pour the batter around it, then bake them together?
Hi David,
I have never tried it with cooki dough befroe. If you try it will you let us know how it turns out?
This is perfect I have been a grinch fanatic since I was a kid . This time of year he an max are all over my house I can’t wait to make this. Thank you so much for sharing!!!
You are welcome Joanne! I want to come visit so I can see your Grench decorations!
I hope you enjoy the cake! 😉
You didn’t have to freeze the hearts to keep them from overcooking? Especially on the bottom of the pan? Just wondering…
Hi Shannon,
I didn’t freeze the hearts and it was fine. The hearts didn’t dry out and tasted as fresh as the green pound cake.
Bear hugs,
Lisa
Can’t wait to try it. Looks easy and I love doing new recipes and experimenting!! Thanks, Judy
I hope you like it Judy. 😉
Thanks for the recipe! I made it last night for a Christmas lunch (today). It was quite the hit. The only change I made was buying one container of vanilla frosting and tinting it green. I couldn’t find heart sprinkles, so used the ones I had on hand and they were fine. I would make this again.
Thank you Judy for sharing. I am so glad you liked it!
Bear hugs!
Just reading your post again. I have a bag of
“cake scraps” in the refrigerator. Please explain what you do with the left over cake scraps.
Hi Judy,
You can sprinkle them over ice cream, yogurt, frosted cake or cupcakes, or on top of brownies that have frosting. You can use them to cover the outside of a cake after it has been frosted. You can make cake pops with them.
Chocolate cake crumbs will work well on chocolate pudding to make “dirt cake” for the kiddos. You can add a little butter and make a pie crust.
There are a ton of things you can use the crumbs. Here are a few more ideas:
http://www.wickedgoodies.net/2012/09/what-to-do-with-leftover-cake/
http://www.cakefu.com/11-ways-to-use-leftover-cake-scraps/
Lisa,
I was surfing for something unique & cute to make as Christmas gifts this year and came across your blog. I LOVE the Grinch and I LOVE this cake! I’m a rookie in the kitchen and like to put my creativity to work – so in preparation for making these to give, I thought I should practice and do some experimenting at the same time…and thought I’d share my experience so far. I’ve made 2 loafs. Loaf 1
Heart: Pound cake for heart (no change there)
Loaf: Pillsbury’s Green Velvet cake mix (it comes with both Red & Green – I wasn’t sure what to expect in the box. Turns out that the mix has coloring already in it – so the red velvet is not used for this project)
Icing: Pillsbury “Holiday” green icing
RESULTS – I get why you need to use the pound cake for the heart because it is dense/heavy, but thought I’d try a cake mix for the rest. It was very difficult to figure out when it was done because the box doesn’t have a recommendation for baking a cake in a loaf pan – I didn’t write it down, so I don’t recall how long it baked (sorry). Upon slicing – the heart was perfect!!! The green color of the cake was very dark, but a pretty color. The icing was way too light and the wrong shade of green!
Loaf 2
Heart: Pound cake with liquid Pumpkin Spice Flavoring and powered Pumpkin Pie Spice
Loaf: Pound cake with liquid Caramel flavor and “Imitation Vanilla Butter & Nut” flavor (I know everyone reading this is thinking I’m crazy – but pound cake seemed a little boring, so I thought I’d try something different)
Icing: Pillsbury has a green Funfetti, which is the Perfect shade of green, so thanks to Pillsbury, no nee
RESULTS: This cake was delicious! The flavoring really made it taste more buttery & vanilla – I didn’t detect the Carmel or nut flavors in the loaf. The pumpkin was good by itself (I sampled a piece of scrap from the heart cake), but was not really noticeable when mixed with the loaf. I think the icing doesn’t go with pound cake, so my next experiment is going to be with using some sort of crumbles on top – like you have on top of a crumb cake. My thinking is that green crumbles may make it look more Grinch-like lol I’ll let you know how that goes.
I have pictures – if there is a way to share them, I’d be happy to 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing! I can’t wait to make royal icing for the first time!!! I could go crazy with that stuff (I told you I’m a rookie – I’d never heard of it until reading your blog!!)
-Amber
I would love to make this cake for my daughters class. Where we live I can’t find the boxed pound cake. Is there another cake that would work?
Hi Sheri,
It is a pound cake mix found with the cake mixes in the grocery store. Here is what the box looks like: http://www.walmart.com/ip/10311565?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227009126593&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40890134672&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=78210560127&veh=sem
Hope the class enjoyes it! 😉
Do you have to lay the hearts on the very bottom of the pan? If you put a layer of green down first, then the hearts, I’m guessing they would sin in a bit, but would it cause any other problems?
Hi Marta,
You can add a layer of the green on the bottom before you add the hearts. Just be careful because the hearts can rise as the cake bakes.
I found the Funfetti cake mixes that are already colored red and green…perfect for thisGrinch cake. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to alter a box mix recipe to make it more dense and more like a pound cake? Thanks.
Is that glass pan a regular cake pan, or is it a pan u would cook meat loaf out of ?
Hi Savanah,
It is called a loaf pan. Here is a link for a glass one on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1O4Is1v.
Or you can use one like this: http://amzn.to/1O4Iqqs.
Bear hugs!
I made this today, and my entire family loved it!! There’s one things (aside from loving the cake) that I wanted to mention. When you are writing, the comma (,) always comes before the conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). In the post above, you put it after the conjunction. I’m an English teacher, so I tend to notice things like that.
Thanks again for the recipe!!
It’s pretty bad that I had a typo in my post. One thing, not things!! And I won’t be bothered at all if you don’t approve my comment!
I’ve made this cake, and I found it useful to put the green cake batter in a large disposable pastry bag. It made it easier to squeeze the batter around the hearts! Thanks for the fun idea. I’m sure my grandchildren will love this cake for Christmas dinner. We’re also have Roast Beast, Who-Hash, Who-Pudding, and Who-Pie.
Hi Judy,
Thanks for the tip! It sounds like you all are going to be in real life Whoville! Have fun and Merry Christmas!
Hi Lisa,
I made this today and my hearts rose to the top. Still looks cute but wanted them to be on the bottom like yours. I did not use the BC box stuff. I have an old family recipe that is quite dense. I use it for my wedding cakes. What can I do to make them stay on the bottom?
Alison
Hi Alison,
Bake the cake and cut the hearts out. Add a small amount of the white pound cake batter to the bottom of the loaf pan. Just add a little because that is what will make your hearts rise. Then, add your hearts and pack them tight so no batter will get in between them. Cover with the remaining batter.
Hope this helps! 😉
Just found this cake and recipe. It looks so cute and I’m sure is adorable. I tried looking for the ‘Bake Even Strips’ but Wilton doesn’t have them any more. Any other ideas?
Thank you from Arkansas
I’ve used aluminum foil and paper towels before. All you have to do is wet the paper towels and fold it in a long strip. Then, place it on the foil and fold it into a strip. Wrap it around the pan and bend the ends to hold it in place. It works well but doesn’t stay put as well as the Wilton strips. But it does work.
I found a tutorial for you at Craftsy: https://www.craftsy.com/cake-decorating/article/how-to-bake-a-flat-cake/
Bear hugs,
Lisa
LOVE LOVE LOVE the concept of this cake!! What size heart cookie cutter did you use? Trying to pick one out on Amazon. Thanks Bunches!
We loved this idea! My family is participating in a 12 day “Artmas” challenge where we make a different type of art each day according to the theme. Yesterday’s theme was Grinch and we wanted to make some edible art. We used your recipe with a small modification… We made four different heart sizes and lined them up so that as you cut through the cake from front to back, the Grinch’s heart “grew three sizes.” Here’s our finished product: https://youtu.be/mQ2PFNPguo8
I LOVE how you made the Grinch cake! That is so cute!!! Thank you so much for sharing with me. You all did an amazing job!!!!!!
I’m looking on Amazon to buy a heart cookie cutter but I’m not sure what size to use 3″? Or should I go smaller?
Hi Marcie,
It’s been a long time since I made this cake. If I were going to make it again and didn’t know the size of the heart cookie cutter, I’d measure the depth of the cake pan and decide what size the cutter should be. It could be a 2″ or a 3″. If the cake pan is deep enough either one should work. I’ll make it again this season to see what size cutter I used because I can’t find the one I used in the tutorial.
Sorry I didn’t include it in this post. I’ll fix it asap.
Bear hugs,
Lisa