Love it or hate it, there’s no getting away from it – Valentine’s Day is fast approaching so we asked baking guru Ashley from Coffee And Cakes to share a recipe for a Valentine’s cake. And just LOOK what she came up with!

over to Ashley…

So it’s that time of year… again. Restaurants are booked up and filled with love heart balloons… roses now cost 50% more than they will next month and you have a set day to show your significant other just how much you care about them. Personally, the pressure is doubled as it is also mine and my boy’s four year anniversary! Gulp!

We have been on a bit of a health kick of late, and I know the best way to my boy’s heart is with cake. Picture the scene, Imagining a perfect Valentine’s Day cake, I saw deep red cherry cake, lashings of white chocolate Ganache topped with beautiful heart shaped chocolates. Sounds good right? WRONG! What actually happened was my cake crumbled and my Ganache flooded the cake board (and sides, and fridge)

Mortified, feeling like I had lost my knack of baking, I remembered K.I.S.S. ( Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Nothing screams Valentine’s than a chocolate fudge cake, and – being my fruit of the moment – I kept the cherry dream alive. So I present to you….Cherry Chocolate Fudge Heaven (I can almost hear the angels sing!)

You will need:

CAKE

• 200g dark chocolate
• 200g butter
• 160g self raising flour
• Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 200g sugar (granulated or light brown)
• 25g cocoa powder
• 3 medium eggs
• 75ml cherry juice
• (Optional – chopped cherries)

fudgE icing

• 110g butter
• 90g dark chocolate
• 420g icing sugar
• Splash of vanilla extract
• 175ml mhole Milk

what to do

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Roughly chop 200g of your dark chocolate, and melt in a bamboree with 200g butter.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix all your dry ingredients together. Add the eggs, cherry juice and melted chocolate and butter and mix well. (I used a food processor for this, but an electric or manual whisk would be suitable too.) Your mixture will be thick and creamy.
3. Grease your cake tin (I wipe mine down with the butter wrapper; it gives it a very fine coating that stops the cake sticking. But you can use a spray)
4. Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes. The easiest way to check if your cake is done is to poke a skewer into the middle of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean then it should be perfect.
5. Remove your cake from the tin and leave to cool for a couple of hours. Personally I like to let mine chill in the fridge, I find it easier to apply the fudge topping.
6. While your cake is cooling you should make a start on your frosting. Melt 90g of chocolate with 110g butter (This takes about 30-40 seconds in the microwave, just remember to keep stirring). In a bowl, mix the chocolate mixture with 420g icing sugar and gradually add the milk until you have the desired consistency. (Not so thick it breaks your spatula, but you don’t want it to run everywhere!) Pop this in the fridge until you are ready to coat your cake.
7. Once everything is suitably cooled, smother your cherry chocolate cake with the chocolate fudge topping until it is all even. Then decorate however you see fit.

If my boy didn’t know I loved him before, he certainly will when he gets a big old slice of Cherry Chocolate Fudge Heaven on Valentine’s Day!

 

A huge thanks to Ashley for this delicious recipe. If you make it, tweet your photos to us at @foodies100 and Ashley at @coffeencakes.