Chocolate Love Cakes with Roasted Strawberry Buttercream

I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t be happy to receive one of these for Valentines Day. Moist chocolate cake, indulgent chocolate ganache, fresh strawberries and roasted strawberry buttercream. They’re the perfect size to split with your love, but this recipe makes more than enough for you to each have your own. I really think it’s worth putting the extra effort into the finishing touches. Fresh rose petals and gold leaf are my favourites to really make them special.

Ingredients - makes 6 mini cakes
Chocolate Cake: (Cake & Ganache recipe originally by Ravneet Gill - method adapted slightly)
175ml olive oil
2 eggs
175ml buttermilk
170ml boiling water
1 tsp instant coffee
125g caster sugar
125g soft light brown sugar
80g cocoa powder
230g plain flour
1 tsp sea salt flakes
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder

Chocolate Ganache:
150g dark chocolate
50g milk chocolate
pinch of sea salt
300g double cream
1 tbsp honey

Roasted Strawberry Buttercream:
150g strawberries, hulled
15g caster sugar (1)
squeeze of lemon juice
200g egg whites
250g caster sugar (2)
500g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla paste

A handful of fresh strawberries, to fill and garnish
Gold leaf/rose petals/heart sprinkles, to garnish

*if you can’t get hold of buttermilk; you can use 87g whole milk mixed with 87g greek yoghurt.

Method
The day before assembly:
Pre-heat the oven to 160°C and grease and line a 9x13inch tin.
In a bowl; whisk together the oil, eggs, buttermilk and boiling water. In another larger bowl, combine the remaining cake ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool before wrapping and placing in the fridge to chill overnight.

For the ganache; place the cream, salt and honey into a saucepan over medium heat. Break both the chocolates into a bowl and partially melt. Once the cream starts to simmer, pour it over the chocolate in three additions before using a hand blender to emulsify the ganache. It should be shiny and smooth. Place clingfilm on the surface and leave at room temperature to set overnight.

The day of assembly:
For the roasted strawberry buttercream; pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Place the strawberries, sugar (1) and squeeze of lemon into a small roasting dish, mix together and roast for 20-25 minutes or until softened. Mash with a fork and place into the fridge to chill while you make the buttercream.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the egg whites and caster sugar (2). Place over a bain-marie, whisking occasionally, until it reaches 65°C. Place the bowl onto your stand mixer and whisk on high until you have a stiff meringue that is still slightly warm. Add in the vanilla and gradually add in the room temperature butter, a few pieces at a time, until you have a lovely silky buttercream. Add in the mashed, roasted strawberries and whisk to combine. Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with your desired nozzle for decorating. I used a small star tip as well as cut a piping bag to the shape of a St. Honore nozzle.

Spoon your set ganache into a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle and have a small amount of chopped strawberries ready. Take the chilled cake out of the fridge and take it out of the tin. Peel off the baking paper and cut out 6 hearts using a deep cookie cutter. Slice each heart in half and fill with piped ganache. Press a few pieces of chopped strawberry into the ganache and place the top half of cake on top. Repeat with all of the mini cakes.

Pipe the roasted strawberry buttercream on top of each cake and garnish with fresh strawberries, rose petals, gold leaf and heart sprinkles.