I’ve always thought recipes that have something hidden on the inside were fun looking. My husband did a checkerboard cake once but I don’t think I’ve ever tried something like this myself.

It’s not really difficult to make either of the cakes. I did have to look up “butter spread” though because while I suspected it was margarine, I wasn’t 100% and didn’t want to mess anything up! Both cake recipes are very standard so you cream together butter, sugar, eggs and then mix in the dry ingredients. I added the pink food coloring to the first cake and then let it do it’s thing in the oven.

I let the pink cake cool while I rummaged around for a heart shaped cookie cutter and realized fairly quickly we don’t own one. I decided it wasn’t necessary and I would freehand a heart…. “how hard can it be” I thought to myself. Well, based on the photo you can tell it wasn’t quite right (though some of that issue is also because the chocolate cake bled over). I did a decent job, but it wasn’t nearly as pretty as the original.

I got my chocolate cake batter mixed together and attempted to assemble everything. I put down a layer of chocolate cake and then my two free-handed heart halves (say that three times fast…). I added more chocolate cake around the sides and then on top.

I’m going to go ahead and tell you what I’d do differently since this is the most critical part. First, I would either cut the cake into 3 or 4 sections and free-hand, or use a cookie cutter. Trying to get the two halves into the loaf pan without breaking anything wasn’t easy and is likely why I had some bleed over with the chocolate. Second, I would pipe the chocolate batter around the sides to ensure it gets underneath better.

Once I finally got everything how it should be in the loaf pan I baked it. Mine ended up not being done after 50 minutes so I had to bake it another 10 minutes or so. In hindsight, I think this is because I used a pullman loaf pan because I thought the height might be better for the heart, but I actually think that’s why it had to cook longer. As a result, it was a little dry.

The icing was very easy to make, though be sure not to heat the chocolate too longer otherwise it will scorch. I piped it on and then added some fun valentine’s themed sprinkles.

This isn’t a difficult cake, nor does it take a ton of time; however it’s not just something you can throw together quickly. It was a little dry on the inside, hence the 8 ranking, but I think using an appropriate loaf pan would solve the issue. As a note, I had been worried the pink cake would be super dry on the inside but it wasn’t. While my heart wasn’t as pretty as the original recipe, it looked very pretty on the outside and I was pleased with the results considering this was a first attempt! Was a fun bake and I’d definitely make this again and might try different shapes on the inside.

Baking Ease	9
Time Spent	9
Taste	8
Visual	9

Recipe Used: The Baking Explorer