“My heart hides, but my love doesn’t…”
Saw some posts about this hidden heart cake for Valentine’s Day, and I couldn’t stop myself for making one in this sweet festive day. It’s not difficult to bake this, but takes long time to assemble the whole thing. It took me 3 hrs for the whole process.
Hard effort paid off in the end. It was indeed romantic to be able to eat this ‘sweet hidden heart’ with the one you loved. Real romantic and heart warming.
Can you ever imagine to make one for your love of life? Or, best of all, someone makes this for you, regardless Valentine’s Day, or not.
Ingredients (A) for red heart shape cake:
120g butter, room temperature
200g of sugar
4 eggs
250g self raising flour
150g of plain Greek yogurt
100ml milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
Red food colouring
Ingredients (B) for chocolate loaf cake:
120g butter, room temperature
200g sugar
4 eggs
250g self raising flour
200ml milk
35g of cocoa powder
Ingredients (C) for frosting (Optional):
250ml of whipping cream
60g of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
OR
Chocolate Sauce Topping:
250g of dark chocolate
60g of icing sugar
20g of melted butter
30g of cocoa powder
Decoration: Chocolate rice (Optional)
Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 170deg Celsius. Grease and lightly dust a long rectangle loaf baking tin with butter and flour.
2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in eggs to the mixture, one by one. Stir in flour into butter mixture alternately with milk.
3. Add Greek yogurt and vanilla essence. Then, fold in red colouring by starting with a small amount and then keep adding until your desired colour.
4. Pour the cake batter into loaf tin and bake in oven for about 40 minutes. Check doneness with inserting a skewer and it should come out clean when the cake is done. Let cake cool for about 10 minutes and remove it from the tin.
5. Leave cake to cool entirely on a wire rack after removing from tin. Once completely cooled, trim away top and bottom crust. Use 2cm diameter wide heart shape mould and cut the heart shapes out of the red cake. Set aside for later.
6. Prepare cake batter a second time with ingredients (B) as listed. Instead of vanilla essence and red colouring, blend in cocoa powder.
7. Pour a portion of the cake batter into the greased and dusted baking tin. Arrange the ‘hearts’ closely together in a row onto the batter in the tin, leaving about 1cm gap at both the narrow sides of the tin. Fill tin with the rest of the mixture, covering the hearts entirely. Bake for about 40 – 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Once baked, remove from oven and leave cake to cool completely.
8. Prepare whipped cream for frosting by beating ingredients (C) as listed, till cream reaches stiff peak and turns light and fluffy. Frost cake once cooled completely. You may also decorate the sides of the cake with chocolate rice. Slice cake to show your hidden red heart in the cake and serve it to your loved ones (without chilling it).
Happy Valentine’s Day.
This cake has to be served at room temperature, best immediately, to remain soft and fluffy texture of cake. If you have to make in advance and keep in refrigerator, choose to use chocolate topping instead, in order to heat up the cake before serve. Otherwise, may expect a firmer texture cake.
A slice of my hidden heart chocolate cake counts about 380kcal.
Tips: If sweeter cake preferred, increase sugar to 250g to each cake mixture.
* Instead of frosting with whipped cream, you may choose to just top the cake with chocolate sauce.
