Sweet Heart!

It was just inevitable- I gave in for some Valentine's Day themed baking! I've always found VDay to be a bit too "commercial" and more of a marketing-coup then an actual day for lovers... but I'm telling myself I should try to be a bit less cynical. Nonetheless, I do admit that I absolutely love all the food stuff that comes out for Feb 14th, and this year there is plenty of interesting creations from the biggest chocolate and pastry names out there. Remind me to include a post with interesting love-ly food finds!

As a first baking trial, I went with something rather classic: lots of chocolate, delicious raspberries and some interesting ingredients such as ginger and nutmeg. I honestly did not have this in mind at the beginning, but I was just naturally drifted into a "classic" direction...and anyway, chocolate and raspberries just happen to be some of the greatest ingredients for romantic occasions! Fortunately however, and by total coincidence, I found an interesting kiss-shaped object the other day as I was on a therapeutic shopping spree. The red plastic kiss was actually in the kid's section, but once I saw it I absolutely knew that whatever it was originally meant for, well, I was transforming it into a dessert mould that would contain tons of delicious chocolate textures and coloured with raspberry "lipstick". To find out exactly what went in there, read the recipe!

Recipe for Sweet Heart!:

Ingredients for the mousse:
300 g chocolate
45g butter
5 eggs
90g sugar

Ingredients for the chocolate base:
100g dark chocolate
100g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
50g flour
Baking powder
50g chocolate chips
20g-40g diced candied ginger OR 1teaspoon nutmeg. (The quantities depend on your personal preference).

Other ingredients:
Raspberries, bitter cocoa, powdered pistachio

How to make it:

• For the chocolate mousse: Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Once melted, add the butter, mix and remove from bain-marie. Crack the eggs in 2 seperate bowls- one for the yolks, the other for the whites. For now, whisk the yolks and add them to the chocolate. Whisk the whites like for a meringue (until the peaks become stiff) while adding the sugar little by little. Now add the whites to the chocolate mix (which contains the yolk) and delicately mix everything with a spatula. Place in fridge for 3h minimum.
• For the chocolate base: Preheat oven to 180C. Melt the chocolate and the butter, and then set aside. In an empty bowl, place the sugar and the eggs and mix well. Then add the choco/butter, mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, chocolate chips and the candied ginger OR the nutmeg. Mix batter well until smooth, place in mould and bake for 25min. Pull out of oven and let cool.

Assembling the desserts:

• Pull out your verrines or moulds. In the bottom, place a layer of the chocolate cake/base. Then add a thicker layer of the mousse. Finish off with either bitter cocoa or powdered pistachio and decorate with raspberries. Enjoy!