By Zoë François, Cooking Channel
Roses are red, chocolate is divine and hearts are pure romance; they're the essentials to the perfect Valentine's Day dessert. These little gems are devil's food layers filled with raspberry cream and covered in glossy chocolate ganache.
Total: 1 hr 20 min
Prep: 1 hr
Cook: 20 min
Yield: 24 heart cakes
Ingredients
Devil's Food:
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/8 cups cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-processed), sift if lumpy
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1/4 cup rum or brandy (or equal parts coffee)
Raspberry cream:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons raspberry preserves
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup hot coffee
Chocolate ganache:
- 1/2 cup apricot jam, heated and strained if there are chunks of fruit
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons corn syrup
- 1 pound bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
Blackberry coulis:
- 2 cups frozen or fresh blackberries
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon creme de cassis or frambois liqueur
Directions
To make the devil's food cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two jelly roll pans with parchment.
- Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and whisk until combined, set aside.
- Whisk together, eggs, milk, oil and vanilla until well combined.
- Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Slowly add the hot coffee and rum to the batter and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- The batter will be quite runny. Pour into prepared pans and bake the layers for about 20 minutes or until set. Cool on a rack. Can be made and refrigerated the day before.
- Cut the devil's food cake with a heart cookie cutter. Depending on the size of your cutter this will get you about 12 2-layer cakes per sheet.
To make the cream
- Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks, add the raspberry preserves and continue whipping until stiff peaks.
- Fill a pastry bag, fitted with a round pastry tip and pipe the cream on half of the heart shaped cakes. Top the cream with another layer of cake.
- Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you make the ganache.
To make the ganache
- Heat the strained apricot preserves in a saucepan over medium-low heat until melted. Add the cream, milk and corn syrup and heat just to simmer. Remove from the heat.
- Add all the chopped chocolate, swirl the pot to make sure the chocolate is completely covered by the cream. Let sit for about 3 minutes and then gently whisk until smooth. Pour about 1 cup of the hot ganache into a shallow dish and refrigerate for 10 minutes or until slightly firm, but still spreadable.
- Leave the remainder of the ganache in the pot to keep it pourable. With a small spatula, spread the refrigerated ganache over the sides of the cakes. The goal is to fill the gap between the layers of cake and make them smooth. We want a smooth surface so that when you pour the ganache over the cakes you will not have any bumps.
To pour the ganache on the cakes
- Set the cakes on a cooling rack over a sheet pan lined with parchment. You want to do this to catch all of the dripping chocolate.
- Slowly pour the ganache over the cake, starting in the middle and working outward. Be sure to check all the sides as you go. There will be a lot pooled up on the parchment, but you can scrape that up and melt to use again.
- If your ganache starts to get too thick, return the pot to the stove and heat on very low heat, just for a few seconds. Allow the cakes to set at room temperature for about 20 minutes. If you need to refrigerate them, they will lose their shine.
- Once you return them to room temperature the shine will come back. To make the blackberry coulis: Cook the berries, sugar and liqueur in a saucepan over low heat at a simmer for about 5 minutes. Use an immersion blender to puree the berries.
- Strain through a chinois or fine mesh strainer. You can find edible roses at some grocery stores or ask your local florist.
