Valentine's Day Cake

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 large egg whites, at room temperature

Decoration Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) can prepared vanilla, frostin plus
• 1 cup prepared vanilla frosting
• red food coloring

Directions

1. 1

   You will also need: candy sugar hearts, 2 9-inch heart-shaped cake pans, a pastry bag, a small writing tip and a medium round tip.

2. 2

   MAKING THE CAKE:.

3. 3

   Preheat the oven to 375~F. Grease and flour the pans well. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

4. 4

   In a large bowl, useing an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, ending with flour mixture, to butter mixture. Add vanilla; mix until blended.

5. 5

   In another bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until stiff, but not dry, peaks form. Fold egg shites in to batter until just combined.

6. 6

   Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake cakes until a toothpick comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack; cool for 10 minutes. Turn cakes into wire rack; cool completely.

7. 7

   DECORATING THE CAKE:.

8. 8

   Tint can of vanilla frosting with red food coloring until it is light pink. Trim tops off of each cake to make the cake level.

9. 9

   Place one cake on a serving plate; spread top with 1/2 cup pink frosting. Top with remaining cake; frost top and sides with remaining frosting.

10. 10

    Spoon 1 cup white frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a small writing tip. Pike a squiggle design on each cake sides.

11. 11

    Fit pastry bag with medium round tip and pipe a pearl design around the top edge of cake. Pipe dots of frosting 1/2 inch apart around the bottom and 1 inch toward the center on top of the cake. Place candy hearts between each piped dot on top.