Heart Filled Valentine's Day Treat

This instructable came about from some last minute inspiration in the spirit of Valentine's Day!

I baked pumpkin bread for an entry in the Snow themed contest just a few days before Valentine's Day. While I was decorating it I thought about how I could use the space in the middle of the heart shaped bundt and came up with the ideas presented in this instructable. I was quite happy with how it turned out, enjoy!

Here's my instructable titled "Snowy Pumpkin Bread":
https://www.instructables.com/id/Snowy-Pumpkin-Bread/

These two have the same baking steps, just different decorating ideas.

Here's the list of ingredients that you'll need:

For the pumpkin bread:

dry ingredients:
4 cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves

wet ingredients:
1 cup vegetable oil
1 15 oz can of pumpkin
2/3 cups water
4 eggs

bundt pan
non stick spray

For the decoration:
strawberries
powdered sugar
sieve

Note: The bundt pan that I used is one made by Nordic Ware. Here are links where you can find it:

* https://www.nordicware.com/store/product_detail/bundt-quartet-pan#.UxX_zPRdV-g

* http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Cast-Bundt-Quartet/dp/B001TRDQUO/ref=sr_1_11?s=kitchen&srs=2597461011&ie=UTF8&qid=1393950300&sr=1-11&keywords=nordic+ware

Mix all of the dry ingredients well with a fork. Add the vegetable oil, pumpkin, and water and mix with a wooden spoon.

Add four eggs, one at a time. Mix well after adding each egg.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the pan you're going to use with non-stick spray.

Fill the bundt pan with the pumpkin bread batter. Bake for about 1 hour or until a tooth pick inserted into the bread comes out clean. Let it cool.

After the pumpkin bread has cooled, slice off the tops of each. The tops have a nice crust - my family usually fights over who can get this piece!

Arrange the pumpkin breads on a platter while they finish cooling.

Place the heart shaped pumpkin bread on a plate. Put some spoonfulls of powdered sugar into a sieve and slowly shake it over the pumpkin bread. You can choose how thick of a layer of sugar you would like.

I actually thought that the powdered sugar that fell onto the plate was beautiful - you can see that I arranged some strawberry hearts around it. 

Select the strawberries that you think are the best. De-stem them and slice them in half. Once in half, turn the half-strawberry slice on its side and cut a thin slice. Make a few slices until the half is cut up. Try to make the slices as straight as possible so that the strawberry slivers are flat.

Now you can probably begin to see the outline of hearts in the slices of strawberry that you've made. Using a knife, trim the tops of each slice so that the arches are more pronounced.

Make many of them so that you have a selection of the best ones. I found myself not choosing the ones that were very white in the center. For the ones that you don't use, you can slice them up into smaller pieces and place them in the center of the heart shaped pumpkin bread.


Note: You can also see this technique used in my Instructable "Love & Popsicles" where strawberries are frozen in coconut-strawberry popsicles made using a paletas recipe. Paletas are Mexican popsicles made with fresh fruit.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Love-Popsicles/

Fill the heart shaped pumpkin bread with the strawberry hearts. Arrange your favorite strawberries at the top, so that a heart is viewable from every angle of the pumpkin bread.

Enjoy! I also considered sprinkling this dessert with chocolate sauce and placing a spoonfull of whipped cream on the side. So many delicious possibilities.