Vappy Halentine's Day!

Weren't expecting that, were ya? Well folks, it's that time of February again, and at the Winchester house, we celebrated in style (a day early) with perhaps the largest baking-related undertaking of my career thus far.

What's that you say? It's just a plan old 4-layer cake with vanilla buttercream? But wait...

Surprise! Kind of an angular heart, but a heart nonetheless, so I'm happy with my first attempt at a cake-inside-a-cake. If you're just a little bit crazy and interested in trying it out yourself, you can find the tutorial I used HERE. She's a professional baker, so I'm not too upset that mine is the ugly stepsister version of her cake. A couple tips if you do attempt it:

1) Follow her (for the life of me I can't find her name anywhere on her blog) version of the red velvet cake. Or if you have your own recipe you want to use, just find a way to make it more dense. (A general rule: subtract a little of a liquid ingredient, like eggs, and add a little butter or baking powder.) 

2) FREEZE THE CAKES! At least for an hour, stick the white cakes into the freezer before cutting. This makes carving them a million times easier and less crumbly. 

3) For the top part of the heart, carve the same V shape as the bottom half, and then make the "island" in the center with white cake crumbs and icing. It'll stay in place, especially once you pack the red velvet around it, and it was just way too intricate for me to try and carve around the center of the heart. Also, be sure to round out the top of the heart! Otherwise you'll get the angular look that mine had.

Anyway, the cake was exhausting, but worthwhile! I hope you all had a nice day, and spent it with people you love, be it romantic or plutonic.