Valentine's Cakes

Chocolate, Raspberry and Coconut Heart Cakes

Perfect for treating your loved one - or yourself!

Ingredients:

Chocolate Sheet Cake:

• 250g plain flour
• 550g caster sugar
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt
• 120ml whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
• 50g cocoa powder
• 240ml boiling water
• 225g unsalted butter (melted)

Red Coconut Coating:

• 60g desiccated coconut
• Red food colouring
• Around 2 tbsp water
• 60g raspberry jam

Raspberry Buttercream:

• 60g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 120g icing sugar
• 30g raspberry jam
• 1 tbsp whole milk

To Fill:

• 30g raspberry jam
• Handful of raspberries

Method:

Chocolate Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (fan)
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, caster sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla.
4. In another separate bowl, mix the cocoa powder, boiling water and melted butter and mix until smooth. 
5. Pour the melted butter and cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
6. Then, pour in the egg mixture and stir until fully combined (it's easier to mix in if you add in a few stages).
7. Pour into a lined and greased deep tin roughly, 33x23cm and bake for 25-30 minutes until risen and a knife comes out clean. 
8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before then carefully tipping the cake onto a wire rack or surface and allow to cool fully. 
9. Meanwhile, prepare the other elements. 

1. In a bowl mix together the desiccated coconut, red food colouring and water. It is best to add the water a little bit at a time - and the amount you need will all depend on the consistency of your food colouring - you many not need water if you are using a liquid colouring, but if you are using a gel colouring you will need to add water. Keep adding colouring/water until you achieve a deep red colour. 
2. Your coconut will now be wet and clumped together, so it needs to be dried out. Sprinkle onto a baking tray, and place in the oven on a low heat (80-100 C) for around 15-20 minutes - keep an eye on it, and as soon as it's dry take it out - you don't want it to be overly crispy! 
3. Transfer to a bowl to cool.

1. In a standing mixer, or with an electric whisk, beat together the butter, icing sugar and milk. 
2. Once smooth, add the jam and mix again until thoroughly combined. 
3. Transfer to a piping bag with a round or star shaped nozzle. 

1. Firstly, level the cooled sheet cake with a large serrated knife, holding the knife parallel to the worktop. Take off the domed part of the sheet cake so it is an even layer. Your cake should be around 1.5-2cm thick once it has been levelled (although if you have used a different sized tin this may vary).
2. Using a heart shaped cookie cutter (or a paper template) around 7cm wide, cut out as many hearts as you can (this works out to be around 11 hearts - which makes 5 cakes, and 1 heart leftover to snack on!) 
3. You will have lots of leftover cake from cutting out the hearts - don't waste it! You could use it to make cake pops with any leftover buttercream, or just eat them! 
4. Take 5 of your hearts, and using a pastry brush, coat the edge of the hearts in jam (heat the jam up for 15 seconds in the microwave to make it easier to spread if it is too thick).
5. Roll the jam coated edges into the red coconut so that it sticks to the jam, coating the edges. 
6. For the remaining 5 hearts, brush the jam over the edges, as well as one of the sides (which will be the top of the cake), and dip in the coconut so it is completely covered. 
7. Taking your piping bag of buttercream, pipe onto the hearts that only have the coconut on the sides, and into the middle of each one, add a dollop of jam and a raspberry (I needed to cut these in half as they were large).
8. Sandwich these with the top coated coconut hearts (see photo above!)
9. Enjoy with your loved ones, your friends, family, or just tuck into them yourself!