Recipe: Chocolate Cake @ Valentine's
1 Feb 2012
Serves 8 to 10 (or just 2)
Ingredients
250g butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup mascarpone
250g dark chocolate, melted
1 punnet of fresh strawberries
200g milk chocolate (grated over the top)
Icing
200g mascarpone cream
200g white chocolate
Method
First make the icing and leave to cool. Bring two inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan. Place the white chocolate in a stainless steel bowl, then place the bowl in the water. Melt the chocolate until runny.
Remove from the heat and fold through the mascarpone cream. Place in the fridge and allow to cool. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F). Grease a 22cm cake tin, heart-shaped if you have one. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy.
Add the eggs and beat well. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa over the butter mixture, add the mascarpone and melted dark chocolate, and mix until just combined. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 55 minutes to one hour or until just set.
Cool in the tin. Now you can ice the cake with mixture that’s been cooling in the fridge, leaving a little of it showing on the edges.
This makes the heart shape stand out more. Wash the strawberries, cut the tops off, cut into halves and arrange in the centre of the cake. Grate the milk chocolate over the strawberrries.