Valentine's Day

 

 It's not that I am especially crazy about all that Valentine's Day stuff. To tell tre truth, I'm not. All those hearts, cards, sweets and such... They are trashy and meaningless to me, one does not really need those things to show that there are some feelings involved. But on the other hand... any occasion is good to prepare something very special for the other one, isn't it? Let it even be the Valentine's Day.

A few days ago I came across a post on  5 Types of Sugar . I saw a beautiful Valentine's cake there - made of white chocolate, rosewater and pistachios. The combination seemed quite great to me, I decided to give it a try in my kitchen. I already had a recipe for a flourless white chocolate cake, replaced the buttercream with one of my favorite icings to which I added white chocolate and some rose petals' preserve... The result of my kitchen activities was very pretty, very sweet and very tasty as well. Altogether I am very happy with it, I must say. Big thank you to Christy for the inspiration!

White Chocolate Valentine's Day Cake

(one big cake or 5 small ones + some edible leftovers)

for the cake

170 g white chocolate

3 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup sugar

8 eggs, separated

for the icing

1/2 cup milk

1.1/2 tablespoons potato flour

35 g sugar

1 egg yolk

45 g white chocolate

1/2 cup cream (36%)

2 teaspoons rose petal preserve

1 teaspoon lemon juice

chopped pistachios

shredded white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 120ºC.

Melt the white chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, stirring constantly. Set aside.

Place the egg yolks in a bowl and beat well. Fold in the white chocolate mixture.

In another bowl, whip the egg whites to soft peaks; add the sugar.

Gently fold the egg yolk-chocolate mixture into the egg whites, stir gently.

Turn the batter into a prepared 23cm spring-form pan, bake 75-80 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut around the edge of the pan. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature.

Now you either can keep the cake as a whole, or cut out smaller cakes (knife works the best).

For the icing, mix well milk, potato flour, sugar and egg yolks in a small pot. Bring it to boiling stirring constantly. When the mixture is thick turn off the heat, add the chocolate and stir until it dissolves. Set it aside to cool.

When the pudding mixture is cool whip the cream until peaks are formed. Mix it gently with pudding, adding the rose preserve and lemon juice.

Put the icing over the sides and top of the cake(s). Spread the shredded white chocolate over the sides and put pistachios on top. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.