Red Velvet Valentine Cake

Mr. VB's birthday falls at a difficult time. With it coming just a few days before Valentine's Day, I always find myself combining the two "holidays." When asked what kind of cake he wanted this year, he said, "Red velvet."

Argh. I've already made red velvet cake...so I wasn't too hot to trot on that idea. Until I saw this cake over at i am baker. Red velvet and a challenge. Sign me up!

Let me warn you, only attempt this cake if you have nothing better to do than bake cakes for 4 hours. Since I fall into that category, it is perfectly acceptable for me try this recipe.

I am not going to give step-by-step instructions for this cake. I need to try this a couple more times before I perfect my technique. Amanda gives much better directions --- so be sure to head on over to her blog.

I will, however, show you step-by-step photos of the process. After baking four round cakes, stack two and two like this (with a healthy layer of frosting in between). 

The toothpick kitchen twine method made it easy to draw a perfect circle on the cakes.

The cut is supposed to be down into a cone shape. As you can tell, mine was more of a flat bottom.

So, I took some of the cake I cut away and filled it back in on the edges, making more of a cone on the bottom.

For the second cake, you want to cut away and leave a pointy peak in the center.

Run a fork through the red velvet cake and crumble it up. Reserve some crumbs if you want to put some on the top of the finished cake. Mix in about a cup of frosting into the remaining crumbs.

Use the frosting/red velvet cake mixture to fill in the holes in the two cakes. Place the cake with the peak on top of the other cake (red velvet filling side down). Frost cake. Decorate top with left over crumbs.

Now,  leave the cake on the edge of the counter. JUST within reach of your dog. Leave the room for a few minutes...

Cut away the portion the dog ate...and reveal the surprise inside! My heart needs some work, but I am happy that it at least slightly resembles a heart. And not a shamrock or something.