Hidden Heart Bundt Cake (made with a cake mix!)

This hidden heart bundt cake has the cutest surprise inside when you cut it open! This simple bundt cake recipe is moist and delicious, and perfectly festive. White pound cake with a hint of almond, cream cheese frosting, and a surprise heart in every slice!

Dressing up a cake mix

With this recipe we’re keeping it simple and we’re dressing up a couple of cake mixes to turn them into a bundt cake! We add dry pudding mix and add sour cream in place of water to make this cake super moist but also make it a little denser, like a pound cake. I love almond flavor, so we add almond extract to this recipe, but feel free to leave it out if you don’t care for the flavor. You’ll need two white cake mixes: dye one pink and bake it in a loaf pan to create the hearts inside your cake. Another option: instead of two white cake mixes, you could grab one strawberry cake mix and use that for your hidden heart inside! Then you wouldn’t need to dye the cake and it would have a fun flavor inside.

Can I use another shape besides a heart?

Of course! This would be so cute with so many other shapes! I can imagine it with a pumpkin or leaf inside for fall, a little Christmas tree or a star during the holidays, or even a number for someone’s birthday, the possibilities are endless!

Cutting out the Hearts

Start by cutting your pink cake loaf into slices. You’ll want your slices to be the same width as your cookie cutter. Then, once you have your cake loaf all sliced up, take your cookie cutter (you’ll want to use a pretty small cookie cutter), and try and get as many hearts out of each slice as you can. I found that I was getting about 2-3 depending on the slice and how tall it was. Just be careful when you’re cutting out your hearts, you’ll want to avoid getting any of the brown crust—it will show up on the inside of your bundt cake!

Arranging your hearts in the bundt cake pan

Start out by greasing and flouring your bundt cake pan, it would be a tragedy if your cake stuck after all that work! Then take ½ of your cake batter and spread it evenly across the bottom of your pan. Take your pink cake hearts and place them upside down, we’re talking point side up!

• Remember: You’ll end up flipping your bundt cake over, so the hearts will end up right side up!

Be careful when placing your hearts in the batter, you want them to fan out from the center. Think about how you cut a bundt cake, like a wedge. The first time I ever made a cake like this I just sort up put all the hearts in there and squished them in, some fanned out from the center, some went straight when the pan started curving, and while you’ll still get a lot of slices with cute little hearts in the center, you’ll probably also get some that are just pink blobs. So be warned by my mistakes! Fan out the hearts from the center! After you arrange your hearts around the pan take the rest of your cake batter and cover the hearts. I like to take tablespoons of the batter and drop it all around the pan, covering the hearts. This way you have more control over the batter distribution without damaging the pink hearts.

Use your leftover heart cake from the loaf for the Cake Truffles (Cake Balls)

So you’re probably sitting there with all these pink cake scraps and thinking: What a waste! If you can stop yourself from eating those scraps for long enough I’ve got a fun little idea for you on how to use them—Make cake truffles! I’ve got a little formula so you can make a small batch of cake truffles with any amount of leftover cake.

So here’s what you’ll need:

• Leftover cake, crumbled
• Frosting
• Candy Melts or Almond Bark Candy Coating
• Sprinkles (optional)

So for every 1 cup of cake crumbs you’ll need 1 ½-2 tablespoons of frosting. For example, I had 3 cups of cake crumbs and I used 5 tablespoons of frosting for my cake truffles. Take your cake crumbs and mix with frosting (start with less, you can always add more if needed). Your cake truffle should become the consistency of cookie dough. Once you have that mixed up, take about a tablespoon of the mixture and roll it into a ball. Freeze your cake truffles for 10 minutes. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave your candy melts or almond bark candy coating in 20 second increments, stirring in between, until melted. Dip you’re your cake truffles in your candy coating, sprinkle with sprinkles, and then chill until hard. They should set up fairly quickly since your cake truffle was already cold. If you want a recipes for a delicious full batch of cake truffles check out my friend Emma's recipe here!

Don’t Over Bake the Bundt Cake

Be careful when you’re baking this hidden heart bundt cake, it’s easy to over bake because the center is already cooked. Make sure you check a couple of spots with your toothpick around the cake. I like to also use the shake and spring back test. If you notice that your cake jiggles at all when you shake it slightly, then that’s a sign it’s not all the way baked. Then there’s the spring back test, when your cake is all the way baked you should be able to push on it lightly and the cake will spring back slightly.

Frosting your hidden heart bundt cake

With this cake we use a delicious cream cheese frosting with a hint of almond, again feel free to forgo the almond if you’re not a fan. When you’re making the frosting start by creaming the cream cheese by itself, once it’s fluffy and loose then we can add in the butter. Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and fluffy. Then add in your extracts, pinch of salt, and powdered sugar. Add in 1 tablespoon of milk as needed, up to 3 tablespoons of milk. Only frost your cake once it is completely cool, unless you want your frosting to just melt all over the cake. You can either pipe the frosting on or use a spatula. Then top it off with some cute festive sprinkles. Some sliced almonds would look super elegant!

Try out these other fabulous desserts, perfect for a special occasion!

• Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake
• Southern Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake
• Dark Chocolate Orange Truffles
• Raspberry Crepe Cake
• Blackberry Lemon Poppyseed Cake
• Strawberry Shortbread Cake

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