secret heart cake.

(some of the photos are missing on this post, bear with me! working on it! xx)

So you're going to a party, or it's somebody's birthday and you've kindly offered to make a cake. What to make? So many different flavours and fillings and icings and probably somebody won't like citrus glazes and somebody else just hates raspberry jam and you start stressing out (or is it just me that does this?). Now you can make this instead! Tell me one person on the entire planet who wouldn't adore a cake that you slice into, and find a secret squishy red velvet heart inside. 

If you're a patient person, yours will be so much tidier than mine. I was so excited to make this that I started carving it when it was still warm, breaking Rule #1 of baking, and I squished the sides a little. If you can bear to wait and chill each piece in the freezer for about 15 minutes before carving, it'll make the whole thing a lot easier. 

(recipes at the bottom if you need them for the basic sponge, red velvet and the frosting.)

Make your bowl of frosting and put it to one side. 

You start by baking a simple red velvet sponge, in any shape because you're going to break it up into crumbs anyway. Break it into chunks and put into a bowl once it's cooled and then use a fork to make it all crumby.

Add between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of frosting to this and mix it thoroughly together. Try and FAIL to resist the temptation to try this stuff, it's incredible. 

Put that into the fridge while you make the sponges. You need to make three that are roughly all the same height and width. Once they're all cooked leave them to cool and find something round to use as a template to cut around, I used a mug.

Choose one of the sponges, put the template in the centre and cut around it. Remove the middle piece and put the cake into the fridge while you do the other two.

The next cake to carve is the bottom piece. Put the template on the top of the cake and mark the circle but don't go too deep. Then carefully cut at an angle so you make a kind of 'v' shape, kind of like an inverted cone. That's going to be the bottom of the heart!

Stick that one in the fridge then grab the last cake. This one you want to cut from the underside, so flip it over and put the template in the centre. 

This time you want to make an inverted cone again for the top of the heart but you need to leave a little mound in the centre to make the top indentation. If you feel like you've messed it up, you can always kind of smush it into a little mound using some of the stuff you've cut out already.

Now take the others out of the fridge and grab the frosting. Put a layer of frosting between the bottom cake and the middle piece (the one with the hole right through). Then grab your red velvet crumbs and press the gently into the hole, right down to the bottom.

Frost the top of the middle layer too, ready for when you put the top on.

Grab your top piece and gently pack the red velvet crumbs around the centre mound, right up to the edge so it's flush with the edges of the hole you've cut. Quickly and carefully, flip the top cake over, onto the other two and press it firmly so that (hopefully) the frosting and red velvet bits all fuse together. 

You could frost the whole cake in a thick layer, or nothing at all, I just like a really thin layer. Leave it to chill and set in the fridge until you're ready, then watch as it's cut into and the little heart inside reveals itself.

Mines a bit messy because I get overexcited and rush through doing it, I'm sure if you took time and actually waited for your cakes to cool, it'd come out perfect.

Recipe for cakes:

To make 3 sponges in 8 inch cake pans you'll need:

3 cup soy milk

3 tsp apple cider vinegar
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Put the soy milk and vinegar into a jug and leave to curdle. Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix, then add the soy milk and the oil and mix thoroughly. Grease and line your cake pans and bake at about gas mark 4/375F/190C for around 20-25 minutes until an inserted knife comes out clean.

To make the red velvet cake you'll need: 

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp red food colouring (look out for the one where the colour is made from Red #40 (coal derivative) not cochineal/carmine (bug derivative)

Almost the same as before, soy milk and vinegar into a jug. All the dry ingredients into the bowl including the cocoa powder, then add the milk and oil and the red food colouring. Mix and pour into a greased and lined cake pan and cook for about 20 minutes at gas mark 4/375F/190C until an inserted knife comes out clean.

To make a frosting that isn't overly sweet, this is the recipe I used (I find a lot of vegan buttercreams including ones I've made on this site before, have been too sweet but this one came out great!)

You'll need:

1 3/4 icing sugar

6 tbsp vegan margarine

2 tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the margarine and sugar together until it's smooth, then add the vinegar and vanilla and beat for another few minutes until it's fluffy and smooth.