Valentine's Day cake an easy confection

Knight Ridder News Service

This Valentine's Day cake is so pretty and yet so easy that even a kitchen klutz could handle it because it makes use of prepackaged ingredients and can be baked in a single Bundt or tube pan — easier than dealing with cake pans, although you can use them if you prefer a more traditional stacked cake with filling.

This one came from a community cookbook produced by a VFW auxiliary in Miami, Fla., contributed by Lettie Peterson of that city. However, versions of the cake abound, making use of various kinds of frozen fruit, various flavors of pudding mix and extract, and substituting various sweet liquids for the fruit syrup. You could make it with frozen strawberries, if you prefer, or even blueberries — though you'd have to substitute fruit juice for the syrup as frozen blueberries don't come in syrup.

Raspberry Dream Cake

• 1 box (about 10 ounces) frozen raspberries in syrup
• 1 box white cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 (4-serving size) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a Bundt pan, 10-inch tube pan or two 9-inch cake pans. Defrost raspberries and drain, reserving the syrup in a measuring cup. Add water if necessary to make 1/2 cup. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the raspberries for the frosting.

Place cake mix, eggs, oil, pudding mix, the 1/2 cup raspberry syrup and the remaining raspberries in a bowl. Beat on medium speed of electric mixer for 3 minutes.

Pour into pan. Make sure your oven rack is in the center of the oven. Bake cake 50 to 55 minutes for bundt or tube pan, 25 to 30 minutes for layers, until cake tester (toothpick, skewer, strand of broom straw) inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 15 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely.

Meanwhile, cream butter with confectioner's sugar by hand or in an electric mixer. Beat in raspberries and almond extract.

Frost cake when cooled. Makes 12 servings.

Nutritional information (per serving): 440 calories (38 percent from fat), 18.4 g fat (5.5 g saturated, 4.5 g monounsaturated), 81.8 mg cholesterol, 3.3 g protein, 65.4 g carbohydrates, 1.1 g fiber, 418 mg sodium.