Heart Cake, or Manly Pink Cake

I always buy the kids boxes of candy for Valentine's Day; it's my hope they'll always remember the day fondly, but without great expectations. I also always bake a cake, usually just decorated with red sprinkles, or pink frosting, or something. This year, I went just a little different, and extrapolated a white cake recipe from a recipe in the Good Housekeeping Cookbook (copyright 1990) that I bought at a used book sale in the last year or so. I needed to make the recipe smaller, and this really was terrific.

WHITE HEART CAKE

2 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

In a bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy; add 1/2 tsp vanilla and slowly add the 1/4 cup sugar, beating until very stiff. Set aside. In another bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch, 1/2 cup sugar, powder and salt with a whisk until well combined and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients, and beat 2 minutes, until smooth. Beat in the egg whites at low speed, until just combined. Turn into a greased heart shaped pan (I used the springform pan from Pampered Chef - see Chan if you want one), and place in a preheated 375F oven. Bake 22 to 26 minutes, until it's lightly browned and tests done with a thin knife or toothpick. Warning: If you open the oven too early, the center of the cake will sink. It will still taste great, but it won't be as pretty.

My eldest daughter was exhorting me to make a "Manly Pink" cake, so I whipped 1/2 cup cream with 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 tsp strawberry extract, which is pink. So far, so good. But then I added 1/2 cup chopped strawberries and beat them it. Uh oh! The whipped cream became rather thin. So I stuck it to the sides of the cake, where it barely stayed. Then I stirred 1/2 cup of sliced strawberries into the remainder of the whipped cream and piled it on top of the cake. It stayed there long enough for me to take a picture.

When I offered the boys some Manly Pink Cake for dessert, the little boys declined, but Dan declared, "I love pink cake of the Manly variety!" and helped himself to a big slice. He declared it quite good, and had more for breakfast. This from the guy who claims to only like chocolate cake. Testimony enough for me!