St Valentines Love Cake

This recipe takes a little more effort to make than your simple Victoria sponge, but believe me when I say it’s worth it. I got up at 7AM on my OWN birthday last year and had it for breakfast, which I plan to do again this year; a new tradition! Made with spices and orange juice and filled with yogurt, raspberries, figs and white chocolate I would go as far as saying this is the best cake I have ever made… 

It makes a rather large cake, probably serving 16, so if you’re making it for a romantic evening in on the 14th, or for your Galentines dinner, I would suggest halving the quantities and finding two slightly deeper tins.

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Ingredients

  • Butter, for greasing

  • 200g plain flour

  • 300g caster sugar

  • 2 tsp baking powder

  • 6 cardamom pods, seeds removed and ground

  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 5 eggs, separate

  • 115ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

  • 1 large orange, juiced and zested

For the filling and decoration

  • 150g white chocolate, broken into pieces

  • 150ml whipping cream

  • 100g icing sugar, plus 2 tbsp for the whipped cream

  • 150ml Greek yogurt

  • Pink gel food colour

  • 200g raspberries

  • 3 fresh figs, quartered

  • 40g pomegranate seeds

1. First of all you need to preheat your oven to gas mark 3, 170℃ or fan 150℃, then grease and line the bottom of your tins. I like to use 4 shallow tins though the original recipe suggests 3 deeper ones; it is down to personal preference or simply what you have in the cupboard! Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and mix in 200g of caster sugar, the baking powder, spices, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. For crushing the cardamon pods, if you don’t have a pestle and mortar the end of a rolling pin works perfectly well.

2.Then in a separate, large bowl whisk the egg whites into soft peaks; you’ll know it’s at this stage after it looks foamy. Keep mixing until it looks like it is just starting to hold its own shape. Add the remaining sugar (100g) a spoonful at a time, which I know seems tedious, but the weight of the sugar will take out all the air you’ve beaten into the eggs if it all goes in at once. Whisk the eggs well after each addition of sugar until you have a shiny glossy mix. 

3.In a separate bowl whisk together the egg yolks, oil and orange juice for a couple of minutes until it looks thick and creamy. With a spoon make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the yolk mixture, followed by orange zest, and beat until you have a smooth paste.

4. Fold the egg white mixture into the paste a third at a time. To ‘fold’ the mixture you need to make figure of 8 shapes through the mix, so scrape down the centre of the bowl, and turn the mix over to the right, scrape down the middle again and fold over to the left of the bowl and repeat until it is combined. Doing this carefully is important so you don’t beat all of the air out, especially because the paste is so much heavier than the light fluffy meringue mix you made earlier. 

5. When you’ve mixed them together divide it evenly between your cake tins, and tap it on the work surface to get out as many air bubbles as possible. If you have any air bubbles when the cake cooks it’ll form pockets of air and cause it to look ‘holy’ and we’re baking for Valentine’s Day, not Sunday dinner… 

6. Bake it in the oven for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when you stick it into the middle. Whilst it’s hot run a knife around the edge of the cake so it’s easier to get out of the tin once it’s cooled. When it is cooled turn it out onto a cooling rack. Do not feel disheartened if the sponges appear to ‘shrink’ compared to when they were in the oven, this has happened to me every single time I make it.

7. Now we have the sponges cooked, it's time to make the filling and build the cake! First of all we need to prepare the chocolate shavings which is easiest done in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water, called a bain marie. When it is melted pour it onto the back of a cooled baking tray with parchment on and spread it out fairly thinly. Put it to one side and once it is hard use the flat side of a knife to push the chocolate away from you and form the curls.

8. Whisk the cream and 2 tbsp of icing sugar until you have soft peaks and then stir in the yogurt. To make the pink icing that goes on the top of the cake take 100g icing sugar and mix it with a few drops of water, and the pink food colouring. Add the water carefully and mix it in fully before adding more, or you end up in a never ending cycle of adding more icing sugar and then water again. You want to be able to spread it, but you don’t want it so runny it pours off the cake. 

9. Now it’s time for the best part - assembling it. What I love about this cake is that you can just put everything on the top and not worry about it having to look perfectly decorated; it just speaks for itself. So, take the first layer and put it on your plate (or cake stand if you’re feeling fancy!) put on some of the whipped cream mixture and top with a handful of the raspberries, I find crushing the raspberries helps them to spread out more evenly. Repeat this until you get to the top layer where you need to spoon over the pink icing and let it drip down the sides a little. Decorate the top of the cake with fresh figs cut into quarters, whole raspberries, pomegranate seeds and finally the white chocolate curls.


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Written by Amy Howard

Hey everyone! My name is Amy Howard and I'm a photographer, food lover and wannabe Bake Off contestant. I live and work in Bristol and most weekends you'll find me in a restaurant or cafe either discovering somewhere new or returning to my all time favourite spots in the city. I believe that life is about balance, which is the reason I run, to combat the effects of all the cake I find myself consuming...

RecipesJessica Blackwell