Hidden heart cake

Dessert with 14 ingredients.

Total time: 190 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 x 175 g unsalted butter softened
• 3 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 50 gram unsalted butter
• 2 x 85 g ground almond
• 3 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 100 millilitre double cream
• 2 x 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 x 140 g self-raising flour sifted
• 2 x 175 g golden caster sugar
• 28 millilitre bottle red food colouring or 1/2 tsp red food colouring gel
• 2 x 100 ml milk
• 6 large eggs
• 200 gram dark chocolate finely chopped
• pink sprinkles (optional)

Method

1. Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. 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, a little at a time, mixing after each addition. Sift together 140g flour, 1⁄2 tsp baking powder and the cocoa, then fold into the butter mixture along with the almonds. Combine 100ml milk, 11⁄2 tsp vanilla and all the food colouring and add to the batter, then mix until evenly coloured.
2. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hr 10 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack. When cool, cut the cake into 4cm slices. Using a 5cm cutter, stamp out the hearts (save any remaining cake for another treat).
3. Repeat step 1 to make a second cake mixture – you won’t have cocoa or food colour in this batch. Pour 3⁄4 of the mixture into the prepared loaf 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 hr or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. For the icing, gently heat all the ingredients over a low heat until combined. Leave to cool, then chill until needed. Spread over the cooled cake and decorate with the sprinkles, if using. Will keep for 3 days stored in a cake tin.