sprinklesoptional or sliced almonds for decorating (optional)
Instructions
Cakes:
Start by making your pink cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take your white (or strawberry) cake mix and add your dry instant pudding mix to it. Add in your eggs or egg whites and oil. Whisk until smooth.
Add in your almond extract (if desired), sour cream or Greek yogurt. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in your red food coloring (if not using a strawberry cake mix) until you achieve a good pink color.
Pour cake batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean with only a few moist crumbs stuck to it.
Let cool completely before using. Once cool, slice off the ends of the cake, trying to remove as little of the cake as possible, you really just want to remove the crust.
Take your heart cookie cutter and cut slices of the loaf the same width as the cookie cutter. Use your heart cookie cutter to cut as many little hearts out of each slices as possible, avoiding the brown crust around the edges. You should get 2-3 hearts per slice.
Then prepare your white cake for the body of the bundt cake. Take your white cake mix and add your dry instant pudding mix to it. Add in your eggs or egg whites and oil. Whisk until smooth.
Add in your almond extract (if desired), sour cream or Greek yogurt. Whisk until smooth. Grease and flour your bundt cake pan so it does not stick. Then add half of the batter to the bundt cake pan, evenly distributing it around the pan.
Take your pink cake hearts and place them topside down/point side up, into the cake batter, fanning them out from the center.
Then take your remaining cake batter and drop spoonfuls around the cake pan, covering the pink hearts. Make sure the batter is smooth and evenly distributed.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until cake springs back at the touch and a toothpick inserted only has few moist crumbs stuck to it. Let cool for 15 minutes before attempting to remove it from the bundt cake pan. Cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
While cake is cooling prepare your frosting. Beat your cream cheese until light and fluffy. Then add in your room temperature butter and cream them together until smooth and fluffy.
Add in your vanilla extract, almond extract, salt, and 1 cup of powdered sugar until smooth. Add in 1 tablespoon of milk and remaining powdered sugar. Add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time as needed.
Once cake is cool, you can pipe your frosting on or use a spatula to spread it over the top of the cake. Decorate with sprinkles or sliced almonds if desired.
Notes
Eggs: you can either use 4 large eggs or 5 large egg whites. I like to use egg whites because I like to keep the cake and as white as possible, but if you don’t mind your cake having a yellow tint, feel free to use whole eggs.