• I know it's a bit of a fuss that you have to prepare the cake separately and wait in between. You can even prepare the pink cake the day before and the chocolate chip cake the next day. Whatever works for your schedule

Prepare the pink cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for conventional oven. For a convection oven, reduce the temperature by 20 F (15 C). Oil an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan and then line the long side of the pan with a parchment paper, leaving about 2 inches of excess on each side for easier removal later
• Whisk sour cream, melted and cooled butter, eggs, vanilla extract, red food gel, sugar and salt until combined. Then whisk in the baking powder and baking soda until well combined.
  
• Then add the flour and switch to a rubber spatula and fold until just combined and you don't see any dry pockets of flour. Don't overmix
  
• Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Smooth the top with a rubber sptaula. Bake in the middle rack for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. It's a rather short cake, about 1 1/2 inch in height only
  
• Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, set on top of a cooling rack.
  
• Then carefully loosen the edge with an offset spatula and grab the overhanging parchment paper and lift the cake onto a cooling rack to let it cool down completely. This may take about an hour or so. We don't want to slice into the cake when it's still warm as it will be crumbly and fall apart when you try to cut out the hearts
  
• Another option to speed up the process is after lifting the cake out of the pan, let it cool down for about 10-15 minutes and then put it inside a freezer for about 30 minutes to speed up the cooling process.
• Once it has cooled down completely, I use a serrated knife to slice the cake in half horizontally. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter, about 2 to 2 1/2 inch in diameter and cut out as many hearts as you can. You will need about 14-16 pieces of hearts. The rest of the cake can be your "snack" or use it to make cake pops, etc
  

Prepare the chocolate chip cake:

• This can be done on the same day or the next day if you would rather spread out the work.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for conventional oven. For a convection oven, reduce the temperature by 20 F (15 C). Oil an 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and then line the long side of the pan with a parchment paper, leaving about 2 inches of excess on each side for easier removal later
• Whisk sour cream, melted and cooled butter, eggs, vanilla extract, sugar and salt until combined. Then whisk in the baking powder and baking soda until well combined. Then add the flour and switch to a rubber spatula and fold until it is just about to be combined, add the chocolate chips
  
• and continue to fold until you don't see any dry pockets of flour. Don't overmix
  
• Scrape about 1/3 of the batter into the bottom of the pan.
  
• Starting from one of the short ends of the loaf pan, nestle the heart into the batter. You can push it in a bit to make sure it stays put. Continue to line up the hearts along the length of the pan. Make sure the hearts are all snug together to minimize any "movement" during baking
  
• Carefully scrape the rest of the batter into the pan, covering the hearts.
  
• Smooth the top. Sprinkle with some turbinado sugar (it adds a nice texture and slight crunch)
  

Baking:

• Put in the middle rack and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean with just a bit of moist crumb is okay, as long as it's not wet.

Cooling down:

• Set the pan on a cooling rack and let the cake cool inside the pan completely. I actually let it sit inside the pan overnight (covered with cling wrap after it has cooled down completely) because the cake tastes so much better and more moist the next day
  
• Slice the cake and enjoy your labor of love :)