A cake with a touch of romance hidden inside. To make the hidden heart shapes you make the cake mixture twice: one for the hearts and the second for the outer layer.
Serves: 8
Preparation: 50 minutes
Cooking: 2 hours 20 minutes
Ingredients
For the cake
● 2 x 175g unsalted butter, softened
● 2 x 175g golden caster sugar
● 6 large eggs
● 2 x 140g self-raising flour, sifted
● 2 x ½ tsp baking powder
● 4 tbsp cocoa powder
● 2 x 85g ground almonds
● 2 x 100ml milk
● 2 x1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
● 2 tbsp red food colouring
For the icing
● 200g dark chocolate, finely chopped
● 50g unsalted butter
Method
● Heat oven to 160°C.
● Grease a 900g loaf tin and line with a long strip of baking parchment.
● Cream 175g butter and 175g sugar until light and fluffy.
● Beat 3 of the eggs and pour in, gradually, mixing after each addition. Sift 140g flour, ½ tsp baking powder and the cocoa, then fold into the butter mixture with 85g of the almonds. Combine 100ml milk, 1½ tsp vanilla and the food colouring and add to the batter, then mix until evenly coloured.
● Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
● Cool for 10 minutes in the tin. Transfer to a wire rack. When cool, cut the cake into 4cm slices. Using a 5cm heart-shaped cutter, stamp out the hearts (save any remaining cake for another treat).
● Line the loaf tin again and make a second cake mixture using the remaining cake ingredients but with no cocoa or food colour.
● Pour three quarters of the mixture into the tin.
● Push the bottoms of the hearts into the batter in a tightly packed row.
● Spoon over the remaining cake mixture, covering as much of the hearts as possible.
● Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
● Cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
● For the icing, gently heat the chocolate and butter over a low heat until combined. Leave to cool before covering the cake with the icing.
