Heart-Shaped Amazing No Bake Watermelon Cake with Lemon Coconut Frosting

As a big fan of this wonderful recipe, I admit that I will find any reasonable excuse to make it. Valentine’s Day really is the perfect occasion to present a Heart-Shaped, Amazing, No-Bake Watermelon “Cake” to someone special and I’m so convinced of this, let me count the ways:

10 REASONS TO MAKE A HEART-SHAPED WATERMELON CAKE FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

1) It’s easy to make and delicious to eat!

2) Hot pinkish-red watermelons are the perfect Valentine’s Day color!

3) This dessert always dazzles and amazes people because it looks like a cake but it’s not! When they cut into it–Surprise!!

4) It’s a sweet treat but not heavy—less guilt, less fat, less calories, more good nutrition!

5) Since it’s winter (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least), eating fresh watermelon is a bit of a special occasion in itself.

6) Of course it’s vegan, without screaming “I’m Vegan!” (not that there’s anything wrong with screaming it!)

7) Watermelons are easily carved into shapes, so why not a heart shape?

8) Kids and grownups of all ages enjoy this treat!

9) Kids can help make it or decorate it for mom, dad, grandma or grandpa.

10) My original blog post with the recipe for the Amazing Easy No-Bake Watermelon Cake has been consistently popular throughout the year so it was natural to adapt it for this lovely holiday.

This time around, I decided to add a little twist of lemon to the frosting because I absolutely love lemon in just about everything! We have a lemon tree that has been having a bumper crop for months and has kept us in a constant state of lemon-overflow. I think the lemon frosting was very delish and a great compliment to the watermelon, strawberries and blueberries in the dessert.

Heart-Shaped Amazing No-Bake Watermelon “Cake” for Valentine’s Day (or any day)

Ingredients

1 small round watermelon (personal sized?)
1 can of Trader Joe’s Extra Rich and Thick Coconut Cream or full-fat unsweetened coconut cream
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
fresh strawberries and blueberries, sliced

Method

1) Extremely important: place the can of full fat coconut milk in the coolest part of refrigerator overnight. This will allow the coconut milk to separate– liquid milk on the bottom and the thick cream on the top. It is the cream that we will use to make the whipped cream. OR if you’re using the can of Trader Joe’s Coconut Cream, there won’t be much separating but it’s best chilled for several hours.
2) Next day: Time to make the whipped cream frosting! Take out your electric mixer and put the bowl and the beaters in the freezer for 5 minutes. Take out and set up mixer.
3) Take the can of coconut milk out of the fridge and flip it upside down. The liquid milk should be on the top now. Pour it off into a bowl—you won’t be using this unless you want to add it to smoothies, baking, etc. If you’re using Trader Joe’s Coconut Cream, do the same, but there probably won’t be much separation at all
4) Scoop or scrape out the hardened coconut cream and put it into the cold bowl that you chilled in the freezer.
5) Start whipping the cream with the electric blender, slowly adding the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla extract. It should become very thick. Drizzle in slowly the lemon juice and continue beating for 1-2 minutes. If the frosting does not seem thick or stiff enough, add some more sugar and continue to beat. Once whipped into a beautiful frosting, place in the refrigerator for cold storage.
6) Carve the watermelon-–slice off the top and the bottom. You should be left with a small, circular, cake-shaped piece. Try your best to level the top and bottom as evenly as possible. Place the piece upright so the rind is vertical.
7) Cut off the rind, in an up and down motion, carefully leaving just the pink fruity cake-shaped piece. Trim to round out.
8) Carefully carve this piece into a heart shape. Then slice it across the middle so that you have 2 heart shapes.
9) Handle them gingerly and place it on the serving plate.
10) With paper towels, dab and blot up as much liquid as possible, leaving the the side and top dry.
11) With a frosting knife, apply the whipped frosting all over the cake.
12) Place fresh fruit on the top of the “cake” in heart designs and around the base of the “cake”
13) Serve immediately. It will keep in the fridge for a few hours to possibly a few days but that depends on how ripe the watermelon is.

Notes:

If you ‘d like to see the original recipe for the Amazing, Easy No-Bake Watermelon Cake, click here.

You may notice that in the original recipe, the frosting was a vanilla flavor (not lemon) and I was able to use agave syrup as a sweetener. When I tried to use agave in the lemon frosting, it was just too liquidy and soft because of the lemon juice so I switched to confectioner’s sugar which stiffened it up. To make vegan vanilla frosting, take a look at the link above!

There will be frosting left over which will stay in the fridge for days!

Feel free to sprinkle sweetened coconut flakes on the cakes!