Heart Shaped Chocolate Cakes with Strawberry Buttercream
Nothing tells someone you love them more than this beautiful heart shaped moist rich chocolate cake with a beautiful fresh strawberry buttercream and decadent chocolate ganache.
Equipment
Ingredients
For the chocolate cake:
- 230 gr plain flour
- 400 gr caster sugar
- 85 gr cocoa powder sifted
- 2¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 120 ml vegetable oil
- 240 ml whole milk
- 1½ tsp Nielsen Massey Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 large room temperature eggs
- 150 ml hot water
For the chocolate ganache:
- 225 gr semi sweet chocolate chopped finely
- 240 ml heavy cream
For the strawberry buttercream:
- 1 cup freeze dried strawberries
- 225 gr unsalted room temperature butter
- 460 gr powdered sugar
- 45-60 ml heavy cream
- ½ tsp Nielsen Massey Pure Vanilla Extract
- pinch of salt
(you may have buttercream left over depending on how many cakes you make, the quantity of buttercream used and the style of decor but it keeps in the fridge so can be used over several days)
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350f and grease and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. I used a 9¨ x 13¨
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the vegetable oil, milk, vanilla and eggs then add these into the dry ingredients and mix until combined with a spatula.
- Add in the hot water and whisk until you have a smooth mixture.
- Pour onto the baking sheet and place in the oven for around 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the centre.
- Allow to cool completed before cutting and assembling.
Chocolate ganache
- Heat the cream until you just see bubbles starting to appear around the edges but do not allow to boil
- Place the chocolate into a bowl and add the hot cream
- Allow it to sit for a minute or two before you start to stir it
- Stir with a spatula until you have a smooth and glossy ganache
- Allow to cool at room temperature and it will thicken as it cools
Strawberry buttercream
- Place the freeze dried strawberries into a food processor and blitz until they are a fine powder
- Place the butter in a mixer and mix until smooth
- Add in half of the powdered sugar and mix again until smooth
- Add in the powdered strawberries with around three tablespoons cream and mix until smooth again
- Add in the vanilla extract then slowly add in the remaining powdered sugar until you have a lovely smooth buttercream
To assemble
- Using a heart shaped cutter, cut hearts out of the cooled chocolate cake
- Place one heart on the base of the plate
- Using a star nozzle fitted on a piping bag, pipe the strawberry buttercream onto the cake base then top with another heart of cake
Two options to finish:
- Place the cake onto a cooling rack over a baking tin and pour over the chocolate ganache to coat the whole cake
- Whisk the cooled ganache until light and fluffy and then pipe onto the top of the cake
- Pipe the rich ganache as it is once cooled and thickened sufficiently to pipe which is what i have done on these images
