Valentines - Red Velvet Heart Cake

As it's a week till Valentines Day, I thought it would be very appropriate to bake a themed cake and share it with you all. I will be baking a red velvet cake in the shape of a heart, decorated with red and white toppings on a white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

I found this recipe on the internet having never tried it before, but let's give it a go!

*this recipe serves 8 generously*

INGREDIENTS:

CAKE

125g softened butter

300g caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tbsp red food colouring

1.5 tbsp cocoa powder

187g plain flour

125ml buttermilk

0.5 tsp vanilla extract

0.25 tsp salt

0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

0.5 tbsp white vinegar

ICING

200g cream cheese

175g white chocolate

125g softened butter

White chocolate buttons, strawberry laces, pink sugar sand (optional)

METHOD:

CAKE

• Preheat your oven to 170C / Gas mark 3
• I then greased my silicone heart mould with vegetable oil
  
• Cream the butter and the sugar together
  

• Add your eggs one at a time after beating them, then stir into the mixture
• Next you'll want to add the food colouring and the cocoa powder into the mix
• Add the flour and the buttermilk, but alternately so you won't accidentally have a mixture too gloopy or too dry
• Add the vanilla extract and the salt
• Gently stir in the bicarbonate of soda mixed with the white vinegar, but be careful not to over stir
  
• I poured my cake into my silicone heart mould and baked it for 30-35 minutes
• After checking that the middle was cooked with a skewer (which must come out clear) I left it to cool in the mould for about 10 minutes
• After these 10 minutes, I peeled the cake from the mould with a pallet knife, and then tipped it onto a wire rack to cool for another half an hour
  

ICING AND TOPPINGS

• Firstly, I melted my white chocolate and allowed it to cool till lukewarm in temperature
• Next, beat the cream cheese so it is light and fluffy, then gradually stir in the lukewarm white chocolate and softened butter
• Beat until the mixture is the consistency of whipped cream
• With a pallet knife, ice the cake all over
• Now I added the next bit myself - strawberry laces in the shape of hearts decorated with white chocolate buttons
• For the finishing Valentines touch, I gently sprinkled pink sugar sand all over the cake
  
  
  
  
   
  

Finished! Now you can enjoy :)

Happy Valentines Day!

❤️