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Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake

January 25, 2020

I’m pretty smitten about this Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake, which is a super cute recipe created especially for Valentine’s Day.

Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake

My friend Amanda Rettke wrote a cookbook a few years back: Surprise-Inside Cakes (Amazon affilitate link).  She’s kinda the queen of cute shapes “hidden” inside of cakes, and her book is all about that. This Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake recipe was inspired by Amanda’s cakes.  It’s much like a chocolate pound cake- dense and chocolatey and slightly fudgy in the middle.  I’ve hidden a heart in the middle of the cake- so when you cut into it, you get the surprise of the heart in every slice.  

Making Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake

How to make a Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake:

The wet ingredients are combined with the dry ingredients to create your chocolatey batter. 

Cutting hearts from pound cake

You also need a frozen pound cake for this recipe (any brand, but I usually pick up the basic Sara Lee).  You certainly could make your own homemade pound cake, but it’s totally not necessary.  Plus, the sturdiness of a frozen pound cake is the kind of consistency you need.  You’ll cut a bunch of heart shapes from slices of the pound cake.  Those will end up being the “surprise” inside your cake!

making Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake

About half of the batter is spread into the bottom of your loaf pan.

Chocolate Loaf Cake with surprise hearts inside

A snuggly row of evenly stacked hearts is placed on top of the batter.

Chocolate Loaf Cake ready for the oven

Then the rest of the batter is spooned on top.

Chocolate Loaf Cake

I sprinkle on chocolate chips to make sure everything was going to be extra-chocolatey!

Chocolate Valentine Loaf Cake

Here is the loaf all baked- you’ll see that the hearts in the center of my cake pop out the top when the cake rose and cracked.  At first, I was like… OH NO!  But then I decided that I liked that the hearts peeked out the middle to tell everyone, “Hey, this is a Valentine’s Day cake!)

Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake

Go ahead and surprise your Valentine’s this year with this delicious Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake.  They’ll love ya for it!

Chocolate Valentine Surprise Loaf Cake

Slice into this chocolate loaf cake for a Valentine heart surprise inside!

  • 10 tablespoons (1 stick + 2 tablespoons) salted butter, (at room temperature)
  • 1 cup granulated white sugar
  • 1/2 cup 2% or whole plain Greek yogurt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1¼ cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips, (divided)
  • 1 loaf frozen pound cake, ((like Sara Lee), cut into ¾-inch slices)

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8×4-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.

  2. In a medium bowl, use and electric mixer to combine the butter and the sugar. Then mix in the yogurt, eggs and vanilla.

  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add to the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Stir in ¼ cup chocolate chips.

  4. Using a small heart cookie cutter (1 to 2 inches), cut heart shapes from each slice of frozen pound cake. Cut enough of them so (when stacked) they'll fit across almost the entire length of the loaf pan.

  5. Spread about half of the batter onto the bottom of the loaf pan. Lay a row of the evenly stacked hearts on their side on top of the batter- spanning the length of the pan and leaving about an inch of space on each end (see photo or video in recipe post). Scoop remaining batter over the top to cover the pound cake hearts and create a smooth surface. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top.

  6. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until almost completely set (it will look a tiny bit like lava cake in the very center, and that's okay!) The hearts you put in the center of the cake may or may not pop up out of the cake as pictured- it depends on how deep the top layer of batter is. Let cool for 20 minutes or so in the pan, then loosen the edges of the pan with a knife and pop out onto a rack to cool completely. Keep well wrapped- this cake is best eaten within a day or two.

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