This Vanilla Love Cake is made using my all-time favorite vanilla layer cake recipe. It's very fluffy and has big vanilla flavor. Made with a fun and easy to follow surprise-inside technique complete with step by step pictures.
Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13" X 18" baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and line bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a medium-sized measuring cup, combine egg whites, whole egg, 1/4 cup of the milk (the rest of the milk will go in separately), and vanilla extract. Set aside.
Place cake flour, sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and salt into bowl of stand mixer or large mixing bowl. Whisk together until well combined.
Turn mixer to low setting and begin adding cold butter pieces to flour mixture one at a time, about every 8-10 seconds until all pieces have been added and mixture looks like fine and crumbly.
Add in the remaining 3/4 cup of milk (not the egg mixture) and continue mixing on low speed for 5 minutes.
Scrape sides of the bowl and begin adding the egg mixture. Do this in 3 separate batches, mixing well in between each addition until batter looks light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add gel food coloring until desired color is reached and continue mixing just until color is even. Scrape the bottom of the mixing bowl and fold in any dry patches.
Using a spatula, scrape batter into prepared 13" X 18" baking pan and bake for 15 minutes or until edges are light golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Place pan on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Then, cover pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in freezer for 1-2 hours or until frozen.
Remove from freezer once frozen and allow to sit uncovered at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Using heart-shaped (or other shape) cookie cutter, cut out cakes. Place cake cut-outs onto a different baking sheet and cover tightly with plastic wrap and place back in freezer. Make white cake batter.
Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two (or 3 if you have a third) 6" X 6" or similar size square baking pans with nonstick cooking spray and line bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
Make vanilla cake batter recipe same as above, adding 4 teaspoons baking powder in Step 3 and omitting food coloring. Set batter aside.
Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two (or 3 if you have a third ) 6" X 6" square baking pans with nonstick cooking spray and line bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
Place white cake batter into large measuring cup.
Remove heart cake cut-outs from freezer. Place 2 frozen heart cakes on top of each other in the center of each prepared square pan and secure with 2-3 toothpicks. (I only have two pans this size, so I baked my third cake after)
Slowly pour white cake batter around heart cakes until batter reaches just below center cakes.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until edges are light golden brown and toothpick inserted into white cake part comes out clean.
Cool cakes at room temperature on wire rack for 15 minutes. Then, remove from pans and continue cooling on wire racks until at room temperature. If you have batter left over, wash cake pan, prepare as above, and repeat. I had enough white batter for 3 square cakes.
Cut domed parts to make flat, level surfaces. Frost two of the surface tops with frosting of your choice. I used vanilla cream cheese frosting (recipe below). Stack on top of each other with unfrosted cake on top (see photo above). Frost all sides with a light coat, except bottom and back (to be frosted later when turned upright). Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Remove from refrigerator and place cake upright on cake board (I cut mine to size) or serving platter. Frost back of cake and sides again with a second coat. Decorate as desired, using additional frosting, sprinkles, or fondant.
Place cream cheese and butter in a large bowl or into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Decrease speed to low and add vanilla. Add salt and then powdered sugar (gradually). Once all sugar is incorporated, increase speed to medium and beat for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.