I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t love a good surprise. Wouldn’t you like it even better if it came inside your cake? That’s what you get with a Hidden Heart Loaf Cake – a surprise inside it! Imagine a nice creamy coloured vanilla cake topped with chocolate ganache which is really perfect as it is. Then you slice it and are surprised by a hidden pink/ red heart in every slice.

Of course, with Valentine’s Day almost here it’s the perfect cake to make though you could make it for anyone at any time of the year really. T’s a great cake to bake for a birthday, an anniversary, a special occasion or just because you feel like making it. If you would rather do away with the heart, you could still put some other shaped “surprise” inside the cake and still have everyone ooooh-ing over your cake.

It’s an easy enough cake to make, just that you need to bake two separate cakes and put them together in a slightly different manner. Valentine’s Day, or any celebration cake is never quite complete without chocolate in my opinion, and so this cake is topped with a chocolate ganache as well. You can use a plain chocolate ganache, but I decided to add a hint of fire to mine so I made chilli chocolate ganache. When the cake is done, it will look like just any other cake, until you slice it to surprise everyone!

I haven’t baked a cake in a while now but yesterday this sudden urge to bake one came over me. I had come across this Hidden Heart Cake some time last year on the net and the idea of a heart hiding inside a cake appealed to me. We don’t do Valentine’s Day and my decision to bake this cake at this point in time was just nothing but sheer coincidence. Since we’re only two of us at home now, the rest of this cake shall most definitely be shared with the neighbours.

While on the subject of Valentine’s Day, we all know that St. Valentine is supposed to be the patron saint of engaged couples and happy marriages. Did you know that he apparently also has responsibilities for interventions connected to beekeeping, epilepsy, the plague, fainting and traveling? And that you could also celebrate St. Valentine’s Day on other days of the year because there are more than one St. Valentine? You could celebrate St. Valentine of Viterbo on November 3, or St. Valentine of Raetia on January 7, or on July 25th in honour of the only female St. Valentine (Valentina), who was martyred in Palestine.

So there you are, more Valentine’s Days to celebrate throughout the year and more opportunities to bake this cake beyond the 14th of February!

I used a little cocoa powder with the red food colour for my Red Heart Cake because I wanted a reddish brown colour. You can use plain red or pink food colouring depending on what colour you want your heart cake to be. How much food colour you need to use would depend on whether you’re using liquid or gel, and what shade of red or pink you desire.

