7 | 52 Heart-filled Loaf Cake (based on Marble Cake)

I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day (if you 'celebrated' it at all...).

In case you are looking for a baking recipe for next V-Day (or any other day of the year) to show your love in the shape of a heart, baked inside a loaf cake, here it is:

Marble Cake (separated but filled with heart)

From Zucker Zimt & Liebe

Basic batter (you need two of these)

250 g (2.2 sticks of) butter, soft

4 eggs

150 g (3/4 cup) sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

pinch of salt

300 g (2 1/4 cups) flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

For the chocolate cake:

3-4 tablespoons milk

For the 'white' cake:

2 tablespoons milk

For the chocolate batter add:

5 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened

• Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F). 
• Cream together butter and eggs. Add sugar, vanilla (sugar), and salt.
• Combine flour, baking powder, cocoa (only for the chocolate cake) and sift into the butter-mix, alternating with the milk.
• Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for about 60 minutes.
• Let cool completely, take out of the form, cut into big slices and use a cookie cutter to cut out the 'filling' for the final cake (in my case a heart).
• Prepare second batch of batter for the 'outside' cake (remember to use less milk to get a thicker batter). Pour a bit of batter onto the bottom of your loaf pan. Arrange cut-outs in a row, as tightly together as possible. Pour remaining batter around your 'filling' and bake for 60 minutes.
• Let cool and dust with powdered sugar or frosting of your choice.

My modifications:

I used butter instead of margarine (I just always do so I also changed that in the recipe above). Since my hubby likes chocolate cake, I made the outside cake chocolate. I colored the 'filling' cake with a bit of red food coloring to get a pink heart (even though I could have used more color, it came out very pastel...). Oh, and I only used half the recipes to make a small loaf.

The taste:

Okay. It could have been more dense or moist, for my taste. So next time I would try to find a more dense cake because I think it might make it easier with the cutting out, etc.

What did you bake for Valentine's Day?