Individual Chocolate Raspberry Heart Cakes
Why I Love This Recipe
Don't let the long directions throw you off...these aren't really that difficult to put together. This is coming from a non-baker :) Also on my blog: http://ellysaysopa.vox.com
Ingredients You'll Need
Cake
1/3 cup milk
1/2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 Tbsp. vanilla
1.5 eggs (I beat an egg and then throw half out to achieve "half" an egg)
1/2 cup superfine sugar (if you don't have this, process some granulated sugar in your food processor until it is finer)
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1.5 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Raspberry Cream
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 Tbsp. Framboise
1/2 cup raspberries
Chocolate Ganache
2 oz. dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 Tbsp. heavy cream
raspberries, for garnish
Raspberry Sauce
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup rasperries, fresh or frozen & thawed (I used a triple berry mixture I had in the freezer of blueberries, raspberries & blackberries)
Directions
To make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 325 and grease an 8" square baking dish with cooking oil or butter.
Heat the milk and the butter in a small saucepan over low heat or in the microwave, just until the butter is melted. Stir the vanilla into the hot mixture. Mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.
Beat the eggs and sugar until very light and frothy. Beat in the milk mixture until incorporated. Mix in (I just use a rubber spatula for this part) the flour mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl until everything is combined.
Pour the mixture into the baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a cooling rack, in the baking dish. Then, invert the cake onto some parchment paper that you have placed on top of the cooling rack. Cool completely.
To make the raspberry cream:
Crush the raspberries slightly with a fork, or pulse just once or twice in your food processor to break them up a bit.
In a separate bowl, start beating the cream. When it starts to thicken, add the sugar and Framboise. Continue beating until soft peaks form. Carefully fold in the crushed raspberries (and their juices) so as not to deflate the cream.
To make the ganache:
In a double boiler (or a stainless steel bowl on top of a smaller pot of simmering water), melt the chocolate and the cream together. When almost completely melted together, remove the bowl from the heat and whisk the mixture a few times until glossy.
To make the raspberry sauce:
Make a simple syrup by bringing the water to a boil in a small saucepan, and then stirring in the sugar to dissolve. Add the berries and the simple syrup mixture to a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth.
To assemble the cakes:
Using a 3" or 3.5" cookie cutter, cut the cake into 4 hearts (or whatever shape you want). Slice through each heart horizontally to form two parts. Add 1/4 of the raspberry cream to the bottom heart and then sandwich with the top heart. Spread 1/4 of the ganache over the top of the individual cake and top with raspberries for garnish. Repeat with the other 3 cakes. Drizzle with raspberry sauce
Makes 4
