Saying 'I love you' with my Chocolate and Rum cake

Sometimes you want to bake for a loved one, some times you want to bake for friends. So do you do make one big cake? Lots of smaller cakes? Something inbetween perhaps? Find me a gift have solved your puzzle with their gorgeous I Heart Cake silicon mould! I have previous hit and misses baking with silicon but was very impressed with this one, mainly as it cleaned up a doddle and my cake came out intact! You basically bake one big cake, and with a quick slicing et voila - you have six cake hearts!

I was a little unsure as to how much cake mixture I would need, it measures 25cm at its widest point but obviously is a little curvy so opted for a 23cm madiera based mixture from one of my cake decorating books, once filled it seemed a little too filled and I quickly scooped some out into a smaller pan and it seemed about right. However I have no idea how much so the ingredients are for the original amount. Which once baked actually was a little shallow but I didn't trust my oven to cook it evenly so was probably wise. Perhaps. Who knows!

The cake tasted perfect, a nice hint of rum comes through and enough cocoa to bring out the flavour. I might of added more another time but that was all what was left in the pot!

Makes 6 heart cakes

Ingredients:

450g plain flour

350g caster sugar

350g butter

2.5 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cocoa powder

6 eggs

5tsp strong coffee, dissolved in 75ml boiling water

3 tbsp dark rum 

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g white chocolate chunks

Icing:

Optional - I made simple glace icing, adding a little cocoa and coffee

Decorations I.e. chocolate hearts, sprinkles, chocolate coated coffee beans are very nice too!

N.b. Start with your ingredients at room temperature, and ideally use a food mixer as its a big mixture! I was over the moon that my 'baby' aka vintage Kenwood Chef is out of storage at long last!

1) Pre heat oven to 180o electric (or as near as yours will get - mine took about 30 minutes with the oven thermometer...) Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat the eggs in one at a time, it might look a little curdled but have faith, as I said to my niece Alice who looked doubtful! Stir through the coffee and vanilla, over a gentle speed if using a mixer.

2) Add the flour, cocoa and baking powder until all combined, it should now look more 'together'! Scatter in the chocolate chunks until nicely combined.

3) The beauty of the silicon mould is not having to grease or line it! Simply transfer cake mix to the pan, smooth over and place in the middle of the oven. I used a cookie slice to get it into the right position but removed before baking. Bake for about 1hr 30, checking at one hour to see where its at. When cooked it should bounce back to touch and a skewer comes away clean.

4) Unfortunately due to a lopsided oven shelf, my cake was slightly too but it was cooked, and with my oven its a miracle. (Note to self email landlord!)

5) Allow to fully cool, then with a bread knife or similar, cut into hearts. Being a perfectionist I did trim the slides minimally and the darker bits got removed! Oh and the top of one due to the lopsidedness! But overall very happy with its turnout!

6) Once your hearts are ready, cut in half and fill with your choice of jam, or buttercream etc. I like jam in cakes, but B prefers buttercream, however time was getting on so sorry, no buttercream this time!

7) Now the fun part - decorating time! We opted for glace icing, as Alice was due to be dropped home and was the quickest to set and be stable in the car for travelling!  I also had some great little chocolate hearts De Oetker sent me a while back which looked great on the slices!

Being iced!

Choc hearts! Perfect for cakes!

8) Once happy with your icing, serve to your loved one:

Slice one:

Slice two - Alice to keep:

Slice three - for my neigbour Ces! 

The remaining three slices were erm, eaten. Delicious!

Many thanks to my niece Alice for her photographing, wiping up and chief testing of cake mixture and to Emma at Find me a Gift for my cake mould!