Hidden Heart Cake

And, the best part, it’s not difficult to make. I took the easy route and used boxed cake mixes.
I mean, if you want a challenge, or have a lot of extra time on your hands, you could always make it more complicated. Make the cakes from scratch. Make the frosting from scratch. Add impressive decorations on top. You can make it your own however you please.

But I'm going to show the simple way, because I know how busy life can get. For my cake mixes, I used a strawberry cake mix for the interior heart. And I used a chocolate cake mix for the exterior. But you can choose any cake mixes you want. If you choose to use a white or vanilla cake mix for the heart, I recommend adding a little red food coloring to the batter so that you can have a pretty pink heart.

In addition to your cake mixes, you’ll need the ingredients listed on the box to make the cake (typically water, oil, and eggs). You will also need frosting (I bought the premade kind at the grocery store), vanilla, almond extract, a rectangular cake pan, a bundt pan, and a medium-sized heart cookie cutter. Optionally, you can have some sprinkles to add on top for decoration.

Start by preheating the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a rectangular cake pan.

Now make the strawberry cake batter. Mix the ingredients according to the directions on the box. I also added a little almond extract to add a little more flavor. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. I recommend dropping the pan on the counter a couple times to release any air bubbles.

Bake the cake according to the directions on the box. I baked mine for 20 minutes and then checked it with a toothpick. I only needed to leave the cake in the oven for another minute or two after I checked it. After removing the cake from the oven, allow the cake to cool before removing from the pan.

After the cake is out of the pan and fully cooled, you can start cutting out the hearts. I trimmed off a little of the top of the cake so that my cake was a little more uniform in height. Then, I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes. Try to get as many hearts out of your cake as possible. This way, you won’t be stressing about not having enough. And having some extra cake is never a bad thing 😊 Set aside the hearts until ready to use them.

Next, grease and flour the bundt pan. Set aside.
Make the chocolate cake batter as directed on the box. I also added a little vanilla to the cake mix.

Now it's time to put the cake together in the bundt pan. Pour half of the chocolate cake batter into the prepared bundt pan. Take your strawberry cake hearts, and place them upside-down in the bundt pan. Try to place them as close togehter as possible so that there won't be many gaps. I know that it's not possible to have them completely pressed up against each other, because they have to go around in a circle. But do the best you can.

Once all the hearts are in place, pour the remaining chocolate cake batter on top of the hearts. Try to get the chocolate mix to fill in all the cracks and to cover all of the strawberry cake.

Bake the cake according to the directions on the box. I recommend checking it a few minutes before the time specified on the box. I only ended up baking mine for 30 minutes. This is because I’ve discovered the oven in our new house seems to cook things more quickly than our previous one. Test your cake with a toothpick to see if it is finished baking. Remove your cake from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing from the pan.

Once the cake is fully cooled and removed from the pan, you can decorate with icing and sprinkles. Or really, decorate however you'd like. For me, I took a tub of icing and placed it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Then I stirred it and heated it again for another 15-20 seconds. Make sure to stir the icing again after it's done heating. This will prevent the edges from being melted, while the middle may still be more solid. Heating the frosting allowed me to pour it over the cake instead of spreading it. The icing dripped down and looked more like a thick glaze than traditional frosting. Then Elayne helped me pour some sprinkles on top of the cake before the icing hardened.

Now you can impress everyone with your delicious, beautiful cake!