Make My Heart Pound Cake

Valentine's Day is right around the corner! 

Are you ready?? 

Let me fill you in on a little secret - I'm NOT!

I've been busy this weekend making other people's Valentine Cake Pops.

I've been helping my daughter with her Valentine cards for school.

And, I've been busy for the past month making wonderful Valentine Treats for the blog!

I'm not ready for my own Valentine.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'm going to actually do anything special on the 14. Mr. Quart will be working and I'll be getting ready for a school Fundraiser on the 15th. I'll be baking up a bunch of cookies for the fundraiser, so you can expect some fun cookies in the near future!

However... back to THIS wonderful Bundt cake baked with a heart inside.

This bundt cake was born out of a love for Butter! Real Butter!

I was fortunate to meet a representative from REAL Butter and we got to talking about what a difference good butter makes in a recipe. I've had major sugar cookie FAIL not once, but twice because I was using store brand butter. We discussed the water content of butter and how that makes all the difference in cut out cookies holding their shape or not. It also makes a difference in chocolate ganache. 

Do you like that beautiful, shiny, glossy, chocolate drizzle on your desserts? Use REAL Butter.

I made a little Vine video while making my Ganache. 

(You can follow me on your iPhone Vine App @PintSizedBaker)

Mr. Quart is also a butter snob. He loves his Grass Fed  Butter. He's gone so far as to order butter from New Zealand in the winter. But, I must admit, it makes a HUGE difference. 

The taste of REAL Butter on toast. Spreading garlic butter on a loaf of bread to go with your Italian dinner. From cooking scrambled eggs, to sauteed chicken, to rich sauces, butter makes a big difference.

This recipe can easily be made over the next few days leading up to the 14th. 

On the 12th, make the Strawberry Pound Cake. Make it after dinner and let it cook for an hour while you get the kids into bed.

On the 13th, make the bundt cake. The kids will enjoy cutting out the hearts and then eating the scraps with some ice cream for dessert. 

On Valentine's day, simply make your ganache, and pour it over your cake just before serving to your family. 

I'd like to thank REAL Butter for providing me with some fresh Wisconsin Butter to try and bake with.

You can check out more Bold with Butter Recipes, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. This recipe is also on their blog HERE!!

Strawberry Pound Cake (adapted from America's Test Kitchen book, "Best Summer Desserts")

by Pint Sized Baker

Prep Time: 2 days

Cook Time: 2 hours

Keywords: cake spring

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Ingredients (1 Bundt Cake)

Ingredients for Strawberry Pound Cake

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted Real Butter
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup pureed strawberries
• 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
• 1 teaspoon red food coloring (optional)

Ingredients for Vanilla Bundt Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 ¼ sticks (18 tablespoons) unsalted Real Butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs + 1 egg yolk

Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache

• 3 ½ ounces dark chocolate
• ½ cup cream
• 1 tablespoon unsalted Real Butter

Instructions

Directions for the Strawberry Pound Cake

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare a 9 x 5 loaf pan with butter and flour.

Use fresh or frozen strawberries. Place in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Set aside one cup of puree.

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Beat sugar and butter for 3 minutes with a paddle attachment until smooth and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time until batter looks curdled. Add in 1/3 of the flour mixture, and then ½ of the sour cream, 1/3 flour, remainder of sour cream, then last of the flour. Add strawberry extract and food coloring to combine now (may add more to intensify color).

Fold in half of the strawberry mixture then fold in remainder of strawberries.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour to 1+10.

Allow to cool for several hours. Cut 1 inch slices discarding the ends. Using a heart cookie cutter, cut out heart shapes. You should get two hearts per slice depending on the size of the cutter. Set hearts aside and prepare next cake.

Directions for the Bundt Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a bundt pan with butter and flour. Ensure that all crevices are coated.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside.

Stir buttermilk, vanilla and lemon juice in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar for 3 minutes with a paddle attachment until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add in 1/3 of the flour, and then ½ of the buttermilk mixture; 1/3 flour then remainder of buttermilk; then remainder of flour.

Pour half of the batter into prepared bundt pan. Take Strawberry Pound Cake Hearts and place them upside-down in the batter. Spoon remainder of the batter over the hearts. If heart tips are sticking out of the batter, don’t worry. The cake will bake up over them.

Bake for 1 hour.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes then flip over, remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Directions for the Ganache

Chop chocolate into small pieces. Heat cream in small pot until milk boils. Pour over chocolate and allow to sit for two minutes. Add in butter and stir until smooth and glossy. Pour over bundt cake.

Cut and enjoy the LOVE inside!

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