During Oktoberfest, one of the most loved traditions is to buy and take home a lebkuchen, or gingerbread heart cookie, with a special phrase on it. These cookies are strung with ribbons as souvenirs and can be worn around the neck or given to your favorite loved one.

Since I was having an Oktoberfest themed birthday, I knew I needed to include these cute cookies in some fashion, but I really wasn’t too keen on gingerbread. Instead, since it was a birthday and all, I decided to make a heart shaped cake in the form of a lebkuchen!

Using a square pan and a circle pan, you can cut the circle in half and easily make a heart shaped cake. Any cake will do, though I tend to be partial to a yellow, butter cake for birthdays. A chocolate frosting covers the top to look like gingerbread, and piped decorations make the lacy pattern and cute phrase!

To make an Oktoberfest heart cookie cake, follow my instructions below. I’ve also included links the recipe I used for a yellow butter cake with chocolate fudge frosting from Tessa’s Layered cookbook (seriously SO AMAZING).

DIY Oktoberfest Heart Cookie Cake

Supplies:

2 Recipes of Vanilla Butter Cake baked in an 8″ x 8″ square pan and an 8″ circle pan – you will have 2 squares and 2 circles in total

1 1/3 Recipes of Fudge Frosting

1/2 recipe of my Buttercream Frosting

Pink and Green food coloring

Serves: ~40 people

1. Bake your two recipes of cake so that you have two 8″ by 8″ square cakes and two 8″ diameter circle cakes. Let the cakes cool completely. Cut the tops off of the cakes if they are not flat or are very different in thickness. If you choose to make the cakes ahead of time, wrap them in a double layer of plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator.

2. Make your 1 and 1/3 recipes of fudge frosting. Take both circle cakes and cut them in half so you have semi-circles. Place a square cake down and then place the semi circles on adjacent sides. This will make a heart! Frost over this layer of cake with 1/2″ of fudge frosting. Place the next square down on top of this cake upside down and the other semi-circles upside down as well. Cover the entire cake in the rest of the fudge frosting.

3. Make the buttercream recipe and split it into three bowls, one with 2/3 of the frosting and two with 1/6 of the frosting. Mix the two 1/6 bowls with food coloring so you have pink and green frosting. Fill a piping bag with a star tip with most of the white food coloring. Pipe a border along the outside of the cake in a swirl pattern. Then pipe around the bottom of the cake with a switch back pattern (pipe a 2″ section and then back track over about 1″).

4. To complete the cake, use the remaining white frosting with a small round tip to write a phrase on the cake. Use the pink frosting with your star tip again to make small roses, and the green frosting in a plastic bag with the tip cut off to make leaves.