Denise says:
- This is a cake with a touch of romance hidden inside. To make the heart shape inside you have to make the cake mixture twice; one for the heart shape and the second for the outer layer.
- Preparation Time: 50 minutes
- Cooking Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Serves: 8 people
Ingredients:
- For the cake
- 2 x 175g unsalted butter, softened
- 2 x 175g golden caster sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 2 x 140g self-raising flour, sifted
- 2 x ½ tsp baking powder
- 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 x 85g ground almond
- 2 x 100ml milk
- 2 x1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons red food colouring
- 200g dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 50g unsalted butter
- Seeds of 1 pomegranate
Method
- Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.
- Grease a 900g loaf tin and line with a long strip of baking parchment.
- Cream 175g butter and 175g sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat 3 of the eggs and pour in, a little at a time, mixing after each addition. Sift together 140g flour, 1⁄2 tsp baking powder and the cocoa, then fold into the butter mixture along with the almonds. Combine 100ml milk, 11⁄2 tsp vanilla and all the food colouring and add to the batter, then mix until evenly coloured.
- Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hr 10 mins until a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 mins in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack. When cool, cut the cake into 4cm slices. Using a 5cm heart shaped cutter, stamp out the hearts (save any remaining cake for another treat).
- Repeat step 1 to make a second cake mixture – you won’t have cocoa or food colour in this batch.
- Pour 3⁄4 of the mixture into the prepared loaf tin.
- Push the bottoms of the hearts into the batter in a tightly packed row.
- Spoon over the remaining cake mixture, covering as much of the hearts as possible.
- Bake for 1 hr or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 mins in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the icing, gently heat all the chocolate and butter over a low heat until combined. Leave to cool before covering the cake with chocolate icing.
Tagged in: Cake, Chocolate, Cocoa Powder, Cooking for 2, dark chocolate, Dessert, Eggs, Ground Almonds, pomegranate seeds, SR Flour, tea, Valentines, Vanilla Extract