Chippy Cakes

Chocolate Almond Hearts

Sunday 20 May 2012

Wow, It's been almost a month since I last posted here! I had the most gruelling exams for the past 2 weeks but the good news is, I'm now free and I am back! There's about 15 posts that are well overdue so bear with me while I trudge through them. For now, here is the recipe for a delightful mini snack: Chocolate Almond Hearts with Ice Cream Filling.

This recipe was inspired by The Pink Whisk's Valentines Hearts. After coming across her recipe, I felt that I had to try it as they are such unique little treats! This recipe will be my own take on the recipe so while some parts may be similar, some will also be different.

Ingredients:

For the chocolate hearts:

110g butter
1 egg
60ml milk
190g caster sugar
130g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
120ml boiling water
2 heaped teaspoons of cocoa powder
1 tsp almond flavouring

For the whipped cream frosting:

1 pot of small heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
50g granulated sugar

To assemble:

Any ice cream of your choice
Strawberries
Whipped cream frosting

You will also need a heart-shaped cake mould for this recipe. But if you don't have any and would prefer to use a differently shaped mould, go ahead and use it! I'm sure it will work and taste just as well. I bought my silicone muffin mould in John Lewis for £12. It was, indeed, quite pricy plus the cake stuck to the bottom!

Method:

Lightly grease the muffin mould with a little oil and line with clingfilm. The oil will help the clingfilm stick neatly to the edges, avoiding it from crumpling into messy little balls. Fill each clingfilm pockets with ice cream, press down around the mould and seal.

Place the tray into the freezer and allow the ice cream to firm up. Then once they've properly formed into a heart shape, you may remove them from the tray and leave in the freezer until serving time!
Preheat the oven to 160C Fan/180C/Gas Mark 4. Grease the heart-shaped mould tray again.
In a saucepan, mix the butter, boiling water and cocoa powder. Heat over a medium heat until the butter melts and it begins to bubble. Remove from heat after bubbling the mixture for 30 seconds.
Add the flour, sugar and bicarbonate of soda slowly to the pan to avoid lumps. Then add the milk, eggs and almond flavouring and mix well.
Pour the mixture into the mould tray, about 1/3 full. Pop in the oven and bake for 18 minutes. Leave the cakes to cool completely in the tray before attempting to take them out.
To make the whipped cream frosting, whip the cream until almost stiff. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until cream holds peaks.
Now, to assemble! Unwrap an ice cream and sandwich in between each half of the heart cake. Swirl the whipped cream with a piping bag and flower tip nozzle. Then, top it off with a fresh strawberry!

You will need to work really quickly when assembling the pieces together as the ice cream may melt! I had that problem with mine so some of my little treats wobbled as the ice cream in the middle were melting! As you can see on the right in the picture below...

One important tip is to prepare the ice cream in advance, allowing the ice cream to firm up for a good few hours. These were quite fun and messy to make! My cake stuck to the bottom of the mould tray so I had to give it quite a nudge to pop them out! As I was assembling the elements together, the ice cream also started to melt so I had to quickly unwrap them out the clingfilm with freezing hands! Yet, they were also super yummy and would make a lovely surprise for your loved one!

9 comments