Happy Valentine Heart Shaped Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

Cake

180g butter (room temperature)
180g caster sugar
180g self-raising flour
30g cocoa powder
3 large eggs
2 tbsp milk

Filling

200ml double cream

20 g icing sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract
150g fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or any fruit you would enjoy

The cake illustrated uses fresh raspberries

Cover

100g dark chocolate
30g unsalted butter

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 160C Fan / 180C Regular

2. Prepare your heart shaped tin. Grease it well and put baking paper on the sides, so that to make sure our cake will not stick.

3. Beat together the butter and the caster sugar until creamy and fluffy.

4. Carefully add the eggs one by one, waiting to incorporate each one properly and then add the next.

5. In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients (flour & cocoa powder) together and then add it in our mixer bowl with the egg, sugar & butter mixture only when the eggs have been incorporated well.

6. Then add the 2 tbsp milk to the mixture.

7. For the cake, that was it… super easy! 

8. We empty the batter into our tin, making sure we spread it evenly and bake for 35 – 40 minutes.

TIP: Always check with a toothpick or a knife to make sure that the cake has been baked properly. It should come out clean. If mixture is still sticking to it, it is not cooked and needs a few minutes more.

9. When our cake is ready, we transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool down.

10. Whilst the cake is cooling,  we prepare the filling. Whisk the double cream, the vanilla extract and the icing sugar with an electric mixer until we have soft peaks. The Chantilly cream, should not be beaten until is very solid, we are looking for a smooth and pliable texture. We put the Chantilly cream in a piping bag with a big nozzle and we put it in the fridge to set.

11. We also prepare our fresh fruits (if you choose strawberries, make sure you cut them in medium size bites) and refresh them with some cold water.

12. When our cake is cooled down, we cut it into two pieces. 

13. We take the bottom part, and we pipe big rosettes (check the picture). 

14. Between the rosettes of cream we put our fresh fruits. You can put as many as you want, but make sure it will not overpower the cake.

15. Once we finish with the filling, we put the top layer of cake and we put it in the fridge until we prepare the icing.

16. To make the chocolate icing (frosting) we melt the chocolate and the butter together in bain-marie and once is done we let it cool down and thicken slightly.

17. Once the mixture is cooled, we spread it over the top of the cake (preferabley not the sides of it) and we decorate with  more fresh fruit as we like.

18. And that’s it! Easy recipe for a chocolate heart shaped cake!

The best present for your.. .Valentine!

Good luck.