happy heart day cake....!

...nope didn't mean valentine's day.....happy heart day.....january 16th is a really special day around here....today is the 3rd anniversary of our daughter's new heart.....she had a transplant when she was 8 months old.....(and knock on wood....has been doing absolutely fantastic ever since)....spent the entire day as a family enjoying the day....and made her this heart cake....because it is such a special day....and actually it will work for valentine's day too....!

....found this red velvet cake recipe....and since i've been meaning to do less with the artificial colors....went with beet juice for the red coloring.....you mix about 4 ounces of beet juice with the cocoa powder.....it's not a really intense red....and with the cocoa it ended up coloring the cake like a cafe au lait color...hence the "red" velvet.....(i was so tempted to just add some red americolor.....but in the end wanted to see what the beet juice did....if anything....)

.....the cake is a 6 inch layer cake.....baked 3 layers....and once cooled cut each of the layers in half....so there were 6 layers iced with vanilla buttercream.....crumb coated first.....

.....then iced with a thicker layer....and used a spatula to make the side markings...amanda from i am baker gives a great tutorial on how to do this.....the hearts are made from what else...?....candy melts!....made from a heart mold in all the different colors.....before they were totally hardened....add a tooth pick (kinda like a heart lollipop) so you can insert them into the cake....the little hearts in the middle of the candy hearts are from a valentine's day sprinkle mix.....attached with some melted candy.....

...so you can see that it wasn't really a red velvet cake with the beet juice....next time i might try beet powder to see if that works any better for red coloring....if anyone has any other suggestions let me know....!

....but it was pretty tasty regardless...and we just called it a chocolate cake and the kiddos had no problems with that....!.....also need to work on getting more even layers with a layer cake....all in all an awesomely awesome day....

....and if you are not already....please please please consider becoming an organ donor....there are so many people on waiting lists and our little shmoopy would not be here had another's family not given such a special gift.....find out how...here....thanks so much!