Fat Friday #29 Quick Valentine Hearts (plus more 4 bonus cheap valentine ideas)

Its Friday the 13th and your forgot Valentines day? Unlucky huh? Opps you're in trouble now, well don't worry. You've got just over 12 hours to do something special. This weeks Fat Friday is a quick and fast Valentine recipe to impress your date. You can bake them a cake or use a plain shop bought cake if your super stretched for time. But by decorating with dark velvety ganche, you'll add a special touch to your cake. Also featured in this post are 4 more cheap and cost effective ways to spend Valentines day!

Heart Shaped Cake covered with chocolate ganche recipe:
Your sweethearts favourite cake baked into a square tin: Try using one of these recipes:
Salted Caramel Brownie
Red Velvet Cake
Blondies

Chocolate ganche recipe (my own)

• 200g dark chocolate
• 285g double cream

Equipment:

• The baking equipment needed or a pre-made cake to cut
• Saucepan
• Wooden spoon
• Heatproof bowl
• Cranked palette knife or plain knife for spreading ganche
• heart shaped cutter
• Sharp knife

1. Bake your huni buni their favourite cake (Robs favourite is Salted Caramel Brownie) and let it cool completely.
2. Once cold, using a heart cookie cutter, cut out a heart shape, using a sharp knife. You should be left with lots of yummy off cuts and heart shaped mini cakes.
3. To make the ganche, heat up the double cream in a saucepan until its hot but not to boiling point.
4. Pour the hot cream on the dark chocolate and mix in until combined with a wooden spoon.
5. Once thickened up, spread on top of each heart and smooth until the sides and top are evenly coated.
6. Place your coated hearts in the fridge and serve with raspberries or strawberries and ice cream or whipped cream.

Other great (cost effective) valentine ideas
1. Create a date night jar- Grab a small jar and a some paper and write down some suggestions for a perfect day between you and your partner. You can class them by price or location if you like. Fold them up and place them in the jar. You can decorate your jar with glitter, sequins or anything you see fit.
2. Lazy meal deal- Many supermarkets now offer Valentine Meal deals, in which you pay, lets say £20 for a 3 course meal and wine. This is a cheap alternative to a meal out. Shop around the supermarkets for the best deals. Most of the time the meal deals are a 'throw in the oven' type of meals ensuring that you and your other half can enjoy some time together.
3. The scenic route- Do you have a park or a beach near you? Take a walk together without your mobile phone (or at least on silent) so your not disturbed. Get re-acquainted with your other half.
4. Movie night in- Grab a cute jar/box, add popcorn, crisps, a bad for you cheesy dip, chocolates, fizzy drinks and a couple of decent films. Instant night in, plus a great gift! Get films that you and your other half will really enjoy and veg out on the sofa.  

Have a Happy Valentines Day whatever your doing!

Limoncello Valentine Creams and Valentine Heart Shaped Biscuits

Valentines day is only one day away. I finally managed to make both  Limoncello truffles and Valentine Heart Biscuits. I didn't think that I would be able to make anything this year as I've been busy with work and home life etc etc. 

But I managed so woo!

Limoncello is a lemon based liquor originating in Italy. It's a really nice drink with lemonade in summer or neat but I don't recommend it! I know a certain friend, that can't stand the smell of limoncello because she got drunk and I wont name name's. Right Sof? Haha. 

You will need about 3 days to make these but that's because the truffles go into freezer twice. 
Day 1: Make truffle centre, pop in freezer
Day 2: Roll into balls. Back in freezer.
Day 3: Cover in chocolate and place in fridge to set. 

Before you go steaming in with this recipe, there's a little warning. Work with the truffle filling as quick as you can, as it's prone to melt at room temperature and at hand temperature. I wrapped some in little bags to give out as gifts, which were tied with floss, because I couldn't find any string. 

Recipe: Makes 36  

      ·   200g/7oz white chocolate

      ·   4 tbs double cream

      ·   Grated zest of 1 lemon

      ·   4 tbsp limoncello liqueur

      ·   100g/4oz butter

      ·   600g/22oz white chocolate, for tempering

      ·   Sprinkles/glitter

      ·   Pink food colour paste (optional)

Equipment:

     ·   Heatproof Bowl

     ·   Saucepan

     ·  Wooden Spoon

     ·  Whisk

     ·  Sealable container

     ·  Tablespoon

     ·  Teaspoon

     ·  2x Boards or plates covered with parchment paper

     ·  Fork 

    1.    Heat 5cm/2 inch water in a saucepan. Put a heatproof bowl on top of the pan, making sure the bottom of bowl does not touch the water. Place the 200g of chocolate in the bowl with the cream and heat gently to allow the chocolate to melt. If using put the food colouring into the mix at this stage.

    2.    Take the bowl off the heat and toss in the lemon zest, limoncello and butter. Whisk until the mixture looks like lemon curd.

   3.  Spoon into a sealable container, put the lid on and chill in the fridge overnight.

    Now go read a book or have a nap or just go about your business.

    4.    Scoop small teaspoons of the mixture and roll into balls. Put on a board lined with baking parchment and freeze overnight.

   
   Once again go outside and play in the snow (It's been snowing here in London again but now it's all slush by now.)
  
  5.   Temper the 600g chocolate by chopping it into pieces, then place it into a microwavable bowl and melt at 800-1000W, checking it 15 seconds and taking care that it doesn’t overheat. When the chocolate looks nearly melted but there are still a few bits bobbed on top, take it out of the microwave and stir in the chocolate gently until smooth.

    

   Look at the intense concentration on my face as I coat each truffle. I don't do photo's that well and it was on my bad side, of course. 
   6. Using a fork and spoon dip each truffle into the chocolate. Toss about to coat then lift out and place back onto the parchment paper, roughing the chocolate with a fork for a textured effect. Decorate while still wet. Repeat with all the truffles.

    7.    Place them in the fridge to set.
    8. Eat or wrap in bags to give away.

These biscuits are easy to make and make great gifts for that special someone. They will need a few hours to completely dry. I recommend that you make them a couple of days ahead of when you need them. 

Recipe: Makes 20 biscuits

    · 125g unsalted butter

    · 125g caster sugar

    · 1 medium egg

    · 1 tsp vanilla extract

    · 250g plain flour, sieved plus a little extra to flour your work surface.

Equipment:

   · Electric whisk

   ·      Bowl

   ·      Sieve

   ·      Heart shaped cutter

   ·      Whisk

   ·      Cling-film

   ·      Baking sheet lined with parchment

   ·      Rolling pin

   1.    In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.

   2.    Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix together.

   3.    Sift half the flour into the bowl and mix in, then sift in the other half and mix again.

   4.    Knead the dough until smooth, then wrap in cling-film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

   5.    Pre-heat your oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4.

   6.    Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to around 4mm thick and cut out into heart shapes.

   7.    Place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden brown. Allow to cool before decorating.

Recipe: Stiff peak royal icing

    · 500g icing sugar/confectioners’ sugar

    · 2 medium egg whites

    · 1 tsp lemon juice

    · Red and pink food colouring paste

Equipment:

    ·  Electric whisk

    · Bowl x 4

    ·  Sieve

    · 6 disposable piping bags

    · Scissors

    · Forks x 3

    · Toothpick

    · Tissue

    · Tablespoons x 3

1.    Sift the icing sugar into a bowl.

2.    Add the egg whites and the lemon juice to the icing sugar and mix together for about 5 minutes.

3.    The mix should look smooth and shiny. If it looks a little dry then add one drop of lemon juice and mix for a minute.

4.    Once your icing makes a stiff peak put it in 3 clean bowls.

5.    Colour 2 of the bowls of icing red and pink. Leave one of the icing bowls coloured white.

6.    Quarter fill, 3 of the piping bags with each colour. Snip a small hole in the top of each bag.

7.    Take a heart biscuit and starting from the top centre, pipe an outline around the inside edge of the biscuit to the tip of the heart. Stop and move the bag away from the biscuit quickly. Then repeat on the other side. You can do this in a combination of colours including half and half colours.

8.    Make sure there are no holes or missing gaps in the hearts, if there are fill them in with the correct colour.

9.    Once all the hearts have been outlined, add a teaspoon of water to each of the colours until the consistency of each icing is runny. Keep adding water, carefully, until it reaches running consistency.

10.  Fill each 3 more disposable piping bags and cut 3 small holes in the ends.

11.  Flood the inside of the biscuit starting at the edge and zigzagging up and down until completely flooded.

12.  Working as quick as you can, decorate your biscuit with other colours, by holding the tip of the bag just above the iced biscuit using a gentle pressure.

  13.  If you pipe 2 lines of icing on your biscuit and then using a toothpick drag lightly through the icing to create a marbled pattern. Wipe the toothpick with tissue to clean. You can even put dots instead of lines to make mini hearts.

I hope you all have a lovely Valentines day! Happy Baking!
Bake and Love On!
Penny

The Hidden Heart Cake

Right first real post to do with baking! Woo!
I do my fair share of reading baking and cooking blogs, but I saw this oh so cool Hidden Heart tutorial from i am baker.

It was a case of what occasion I need to make such a cool cake? Then I get invited to a friends birthday dinner. Perfect!
I made her a birthday cake that I know that she would love!
It was the first ever time that I made this cake and I've NEVER made a layer cake like this. So, first time effort plus never made a cake like this, I'd like to think deserve a little pat on the back.
Here is the batter photo's. I used a victoria sandwich sponge recipe which turned out really light and delicious. (This is at the bottom of the post.)

I made 4 cakes (the recipe below makes 2 cakes if you split them into 2 tins. I used 7 inch tins.)

After all the cakes were cooled I popped them in the freezer to firm up and make it easier to level. Below, are the pictures of leveled cakes. Of course I had a cake lever to give me a hand.

Next you need I put a thick layer of buttercream between two of the sponges. This is one of the most important lessons ever: double check you've got the right ingredients. I say this because I ran out of ingredients to make my own buttercream, so I had to use buttercream from a can, homemade tastes nicer. So what's that rule again? double check you've got all the right ingredients.

Once the cakes were firmly 'glued' together with the buttercream, by being in the freezer for a couple of hours, I tied erm... dental floss to two toothpicks to create a guideline around both cakes. (I couldn't find string, dental floss did the trick.)

Next was the super hardest bit, the carving out. One cake needed to have a 'V' in the middle and the other needed to have a volcano and canal (see below. However, I can see that now it was too domed shaped rather then volcano shaped.) I find the best thing to do is carve with a knife and then  spoon out any extra bits.

Next I crumbed up the red velvet cake, and then filled it into the carved gaps with the white cake.

Next both cakes went into the freezer overnight with a thin layer of buttercream also called a crumb coat. Then the fun part, the decorating. Essentially I covered the whole cake in vanilla buttercream and used some basic piping skills to do the edges. Then dyed the sugarpaste red and stamped out letters and butterflies. Then I added some the leftover red velvet crumbs around edges.

You know, it looks like a pretty birthday cake.

The point is, that the birthday girl loved the cake.

Personally, I thought it looked more like a smile then a heart. But not bad for a first try. But the top layer, the 'volcano and canal' carved cake needs to reassemble a volcano rather then a dome shape. Remember to try this for yourself check out i am baker's tutorial.

Recipe time:

Victoria sandwich from "Saved by Cake" by Marian Keyes 

•        200g unsalted butter
•        200g caster sugar
•        4 eggs
•        1 tea spoon vanilla extract
•        200g self raising flour

1.    Butter two 7cm tins and line the bases with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven to 190c/375f/Gas Mark 5.
2.    Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating between each addition. The mix may curdle a little but add a tablespoon of flour if this happens.
3.    Stir in the vanilla extract and sieve in the flour and fold through.
4.    Divide the mix between tins and bake for about 20 minutes.

 Red velvet cake from "Cakes Galore" by Valerie Barrett

•        75g unsalted butter, soften
•        300g caster sugar
•        2 eggs, beaten
•        1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•        225g plain flour
•        3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
•        1 ½ teaspoon red food colour paste
•        125ml buttermilk
•       1 tablespoon white vinegar
•        a pinch of salt 
• 
  

1.     Preheat the oven to 180c/350c/ gas mark 4. Grease and flour two 23cm round sandwich cake tins.
2.     For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. 
3.     Sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a separate bowl. Stir in the food colour paste into buttermilk.
4.     Alternately add the flour and buttermilk mixtures to the creamed mixture. Stir in the vinegar, mixing well. 
5.     Pour the mixture into the prepared tins, dividing it evenly. Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins or until firm to touch. 
6.     Cool in the tins for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

I hope you give this try!

Bake on!

Penny