Chocolate Heart Surprise Cake

A fabulously chocolatey Valentine’s treat.

Course Sweets

Cuisine British

Keyword cake, chocolate, valentines cake

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1 30

Chilling Time 3 20

Total Time 5 20

Servings 12 Slices

Calories 469kcal

Author Donna

Ingredients

For the heart:

170 g Butter or Margarine
170 g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
170 g Self-Raising Flour
1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
Red Food Colouring Use good quality and add a few drops at a time

For the Chocolate Cake:

220 g Butter or Margarine
220 g Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
190 g Self-Raising Flour
30 g Cocoa

For the Buttercream:

100 g Butter at room temp
200 g Icing Sugar
4 tablespoons Cocoa Powder
100 g Milk chocolate Broken into squares

Instructions

To make the heart:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and lightly grease your loaf tin.
Cream together the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating in well before adding the next, then stir in the vanilla.
Sift in the flour and fold until the mixture is smoother.
Add food colouring a few drops at a time until the mix is a vibrant red.
Pour the mix into your loaf tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, or until thoroughly cooked, using a skewer to test the centre.
When cooked remove from the oven and leave for 5 minutes.
After this, tip on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Chop the two ends off and discard.
Chop the rest of the cake into 6 thick, even slices.
Use the heart cookie cutter to gently press shapes out of the cake slices, discarding the edges.
Either wrap each slice in foil, or place them flat, and separate, into freezer bags.
Freeze for at least two hours.

For the chocolate cake:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, wash and grease the same loaf tin.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Sift in the flour and cocoa.
Fold together until smooth.
Generously line the bottom and sides of the cake tin with the chocolate batter, ensuring there’s plenty left to top.
Remove the hearts from the freezer and gently stand them on top of the chocolate bottom, close enough together that they can stand, I find it easier to start with the middle slice and add one each side of it until all gone, try to line them up as evenly as you can.
Cover with the rest of the chocolate cake mix.
Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes until cooked through.
Remove from the oven and leave for five minutes.
Tip on to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the buttercream top:

In a small saucepan over a medium heat, melt the chocolate gently, and leave to one side to cool.
Beat the butter until soft.
Add the icing sugar and cocoa and continue to beat until smooth.
Tip the melted chocolate into the buttercream and fold in until smooth.
Spread or pipe onto the cooled cake.
Top with sprinkles or decorations if required.

Notes

You also need a loaf tin (mine is 9” x 4”) and a deep heart cookie cutter If you want to stab the chocolate batter to check to see if it’s cooked, be sure to only insert the skewer into the chocolate and not the heart, or it might bleed.