Rose Heart Cake

My second recipe for Valentine’s Day was inspired by February 2012 cover of Martha Stewart Living magazine. There was a beautiful pink flower arrangement in a heart shape on the picture. So I decided to make a heart shaped cake decorated with a lot of sugar pink roses. More and more I love making these sugar flowers. It's like a therapy for me.

I prepared an almond chocolate sponge cake from this book. Because I love almonds, I loved this cake. It is so reach, so good. Once again, I couldn’t not resist in using brigadeiro. This time I made a raspberry white chocolate brigadeiro filling. To balance the sweetness of the brigadeiro I opted to make a mascarpone frosting. 

I have to confess that this cake was one of my favorites. The combination of flavors is magnificent. Besides I liked very much the different shades of pink that I used on the sugar roses.

Almond Chocolate Sponge Cake

(from the book Professional Baking)

4.33 oz /130 g Marzipan

2.67 oz /80 g (4 yolks) Egg yolks

4 oz /120 g (4 whites) Egg whites

1.67 oz (4 tbsp)/ 50 g Sugar

1.33 oz /40 g Cake flour

1.33 oz/ 40g  Cocoa powder  

1.33 oz /40 g Butter, melted

1. Beat the marzipan and egg yolks

together until smooth and light.

2. Whip the egg whites and sugar to a

stiff meringue.

3. Sift the flour and cocoa together. Fold

the meringue and dry ingredients

alternately into the egg yolk mixture,

starting and ending with the meringue.

4. Fold in the butter.

Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 10–12 minutes.

Raspberry white chocolate brigadeiro

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

100g white chocolate (I used Callebaut Belgian Chocolate)  

6oz/170g raspberries

1 teaspoon rose water

Pour the condensed milk into a medium saucepan and place over low heat.

Add the chocolate, butter, raspberries and rose water. Stir the mixture until it starts to show the bottom of the pan while you scrape it with a spoon. The mixture should be thick enough to show the bottom of the pan for a few seconds before the mixture back again. 

Vanilla Mascarpone Frosting

1 cup (8oz) mascarpone at room temperature

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla paste

4 cups powdered sugar (1 lbs)

1. Beat the mascarpone cheese, vanilla and butter in a large bowl of electric mixer

2. Add the powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.