Chocolate-Cherry Whipped Cream Cake, or, A Valentine's Day Treat

An unpopular opinion (or three): my three favourite holidays (in order, Halloween, New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day) are everyone else's least favourite. What do they all have in common, you ask? Sugar.* Whether in the form of peanut butter (I can't be the only one who associates peanut butter with Halloween, right?), champagne or the darkest chocolate feasible, I'm always a happy camper in the weeks leading up to these holidays.

And If there's any more quintessentially Valentine's Day flavour combination than cherries and chocolate, then I dunno what it is. Add whipped cream to the mix and I'm in, because we all know how much I adore a whipped cream cake. So while this one didn't turn out quite like I planned, it was still delicious- a black forest cake without the 1970s feel, a simple-but-festive frosting, and decadent cherries to round it all out.

This is the kind of cake you could whip out when you have friends coming over and no one has to know how simple it was to make, or the kind of thing you can easily make just because it's a Wednesday night and it's been too long since you had cake. The heart on top is much easier than I thought it would be and totally optional anyway; for bonus trend points and to make the whole process even easier, you can also leave the sides of the cake bald.

This is what the batter will look like if you don't temper it as below- tan with chocolate flecks throughout. Tastes fine, looks like a dark vanilla cake when baked.

After removing the paper template.

If you live somewhere where you somehow have access to fresh cherries this time of year, this would be amazing with homemade cherry filling, but why complicate things? And as for the unexpected surprise I ran into while making this, I really should have seen it coming: you can't mix warm melted chocolate (or even 'melted and cooled') chocolate into a cold liquid batter made of refrigerated cream without the chocolate seizing up. Luckily this didn't affect the flavour, but it did make the cake itself much lighter than a normal cake with this much chocolate in it. (Kind of a fun surprise when you taste it and it's still got a rich chocolate flavour despite looking like a vanilla cake, though!). Lucky for you, I've troubleshot the instructions below so your cake should come out much darker than mine. Good luck!

*And, let's be real, really good outfits.

The verdict:

4 spoons out of five. Really tasty, but cakes frosted with whipped cream are always best eaten as soon as they are made, which limits the times when this is the perfect option.

One year ago: Party Mix
two years ago: Twice-Cooked Broccoli

the recipe:

Chocolate-Cherry Whipped Cream Cake

the directions:
cake:

Preheat oven to 175C/350F.
Melt chocolate until JUST smooth and set aside to cool.
Grease and flour two 8- or 9-inch layer pans.
Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, then set aside.
Whip cream until stiff.
Fold in eggs and almond flavouring gently.
In a small bowl, combine well-cooled chocolate with a few spoonfuls of batter at a time, stirring well as you go. (This will help keep the mixture from splitting when you add the chocolate.)
Once mixture is uniform, add another few spoonfuls of batter to your chocolate mixture and stir again until uniform, then add chocolate mixture back into your batter and blend until combined.
Pour into pans and bake 25-30 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in the centre comes out clean and cake has slightly pulled away from sides of pan.
Set cake aside to cool completely.

Filling and topping:

Cut a heart shape from parchment paper and set aside.
Whip cream with almond flavouring, gradually adding powdered sugar until soft peaks form.
Once cake is completely cooled, pipe or spoon a rim of whipped cream around the edge of your bottom cake layer, then carefully spoon about 2/3 of your pie filling into the centre.
Place your top layer, then put a dab of cherry filling in the centre of the top layer to 'glue' your paper heart in the centre of the cake.
Once the heart is placed, carefully cover the rest of the top of the cake with whipped cream.
Peel away the heart gently and spoon the remaining cherry pie filling into the empty heart shape.

Best enjoyed on the day it's made, but will keep 24 hours in the fridge.

the ingredients:
the cake:

3 oz (90g) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 ¼ c (270g) flour
1 ½ c (300g) sugar
2 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 2/3 c (390ml) whipping cream
3 eggs, beaten well
1 tsp almond extract

 

 

 

 

 

the filling and topping:

1 ½ c (355ml) whipping cream
½ tsp almond extract
¼ c (30g) powdered sugar, sifted
1 can (410g) cherry pie filling

Shortbread

First, let's address the fact that this recipe is labelled 'Scotch Shortbread,' when everyone knows that the only things you should ever refer to as 'Scotch' are eggs and whisky. This is a real thing: the correct word is Scottish. And because I'm pretty sure no self-respecting Scottish person or any person who lives here would ever refer to Scotch shortbread, I have a strong suspicion that (horror of horrors!) this recipe was not, in fact, developed in Scotland, so I shall refer to it simply as shortbread.

Now, on to more important things: Thursday is Burns' Night- do you know where you'll be? If you're me, you'll be trying to talk your way out of dancing a ceilidh with a kilted youth after eating more haggis, neeps and tatties than should rightfully be allowed by law. Burns' Night is a celebration of Robert (Rabbie) Burns on his birthday every year in January, and it's a good thing he was born in January because this would be a terrible meal to eat in July.

A proper Burns' Night involves the following:

• A haggis, to which you read a poem before you cut into it with a sword (not a joke- this causes like a zillion serious eye injuries every year when juices squirt out during the poem-reading or sword-slashing)

• The aforementioned side dishes of neeps and tatties (neeps are like what would happen if a rutabaga met a turnip and fell in love... and also turned orange)

• A bunch more poems later

• A dessert like cranachan (my fave!) or shortbread

• Ceilidh dancing (pronounced KAY-lee, this is traditional Scottish dancing)

• And literally all of the whisky you can drink without dying.

While cranachan and sticky toffee pudding are my favourite traditional Scottish desserts, shortbread is nothing to be scoffed at- particularly after a meal as heavy as a Burns' Supper, sometimes it's nice to have a small shortbread with your coffee and call it a night (yeah right, more like 'a shortbread with your coffee before you hit the dance floor'). So if you're looking for a non-fussy Scottish recipe to celebrate your Burns' Night here in Scotland or vicariously from elsewhere, try this shortbread. It's great plain, but works well with decorations as recommended as well.

Some tips: It's important not to overwork shortbread as this will make it tough, so you'll want to mix this as little as possible. The dough will be quite a sandy texture before you roll it out, and rolling it out might be a little tough since it will want to crumble and fall apart on you. Luckily, it's ok if these cookies are a little on the thick side, and even better: if you're really not in the mood to roll this dough out, you can dump it straight into an 8-inch round baking tin, press it as flat as possible and bake it that way. If you go this route, prick the dough thoroughly with a fork after pressing it into the pan, refrigerate it for at least 15 minutes before baking, and slice it immediately after removing from the oven, while still warm.

The verdict:

4 spoons out of five. If you like shortbread, you'll love this- I'd give it more spoons, but, having a major sweet tooth and a need for frosting or at least chocolate in my desserts, shortbread is low on my list of faves. But this is the only shortbread I've ever had that tasted better the second day, when the texture seemed to mellow a bit more, meaning you can make it a day ahead (tonight!) and not worry about it going stale before you serve it tomorrow.

ONE YEAR AGO: TOLL HOUSE MARBLE SQUARES
TWO YEARS AGO: ASIAN CHICKEN TWO WAYS

the recipe:

Shortbread

the directions:

Preheat oven to 175C/350F.
Cream butter.
Add sugar gradually, beating well after each addition.
Cream until light and fluffy.
Blend in flour, baking powder and salt, mixing until a sandy mixture has formed.
Roll dough out on a well-floured surface- try to make it as thin as possible, about 1/3-inch (8.5mm).
Cut with a 2-inch round biscuit cutter.
(Alternately, pour dough into an 8-inch round pan, press flat, prick with a fork several times and bake as below).
Bake 12-15 minutes until biscuits are just starting to turn gold at the edges
As soon as shortbread comes out of the oven, decorate with candied cherries or mixed peel.
If using melted chocolate to decorate, allow cookies to cool fully first.

Makes approx. 20 cookies

the ingredients:

½ c (114g) butter
¼ c (29g) powdered sugar, sifted
1 c (120g) flour, sifted
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
Candied cherries, melted chocolate, or mixed peel to decorate

Baked Rice Pudding

Pudding in serving bowls has extra milk added to it for a looser consistency.

Is it snowing where you are (again)? Do you live in a city where you can't make snow cream because you don't even have your own garden, much less a clean place to gather snow from? Are you also not really sure what snow cream even is?

JOIN THE CLUB and get on the rice pudding train with me. Rice pudding is a traditional pudding in the American sense of the word, a baked custard-rice mixture topped with cinnamon and nutmeg and it's awesome. I had never had rice pudding until I was well into my teenage years, and I don't really know why that is- I mean, it's never on the menu at restaurants, but why had no one I knew ever made it?

But anyway, it's not exactly a thing you want to serve at a party, and supermarkets in both the US and the UK always have the pre-made version in stock, so I guess it just never occurred to me to make my own, which is stupid because it's gotta be easy, right?

It is.

But what sets this version apart is that it's baked- while loads of recipes for baked rice pudding exist, I've definitely never had a baked version, but after this I might never go back. After combining the liquid ingredients with the rice, the whole thing is put in the oven for an hour, which is enough time to caramelise the top and dry out some of the excess liquid, making a thicker, denser finished pudding that's more like a crème brulée than a traditional rice pudding. If you prefer yours looser in texture, it's easy to add a drizzle of milk when you serve it to mimic the more common stovetop pudding varieties. Served straight from the oven, it was warming and cosy and a perfect afternoon snack to eat while we watched the snow fall... but I'd be lying if I told you I didn't eat it straight from the fridge the following morning for breakfast.

You should definitely make this pudding this week. Serve it hot or serve it cold, it's good either way. I'm already planning a version made with coconut rice and coconut milk, and I can't wait. This is comfort food perfect for when the weather outside has you never wanting to leave your house again, and the best part is that you probably have nearly all the ingredients in your refrigerator already.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. Now that I know how easy rice pudding is to make, I'm gonna make it all the time.

One year ago: toll house marble squares
two years ago: Asian chicken two ways

the recipe:

Baked Rice Pudding

the directions:

Cook the rice according to the directions on the package- if you have a cinnamon stick, pop it in the rice pot to infuse the rice.
Once rice has cooked, drain any extra water, remove the cinnamon stick and refrigerate until needed to cool the rice so you don't scramble your eggs later.
Preheat oven to 400F/200C.
Beat eggs until light yellow and creamy, then add sugar.
Beat until smooth, then add the vanilla and ½ cup (118ml) milk.
Beat thoroughly until uniform consistency.
Add cooled rice gradually and beat on low speed approximately 1 minute until rice is broken up.
Add remaining 2 cups (470ml) milk and stir well to combine.
Mixture will be VERY liquid.
Pour into an 8-inch baking dish with high sides or a 9-inch dish (I used a tart pan).
Give it a stir in the pan to make sure the rice isn't clumped together.
Sprinkle top generously with nutmeg.
Fill a separate baking dish with water and place on the shelf below the pudding.
Bake 50-60 minutes until the middle jiggles only slightly when nudged (a knife inserted in the middle should come out sticky, but no liquid should leak from the hole).
Top will be quite browned and caramelised.
Serve immediately while warm or refrigerate and serve cold, either way with extra nutmeg or cinnamon on top and a drizzle more milk if needed to loosen.

the ingredients:

1 c (180g) uncooked white rice
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
3 eggs
1 c (200g) sugar (this makes a pretty sweet pudding; if you'd prefer it slightly less so, you can cut it to ¾ c)
2 ½ c (590ml) milk, divided
1 tbsp vanilla
Nutmeg