A ridiculously easy little cake for the heart-shaped day. Mini Victoria sponge, with the favourite filling of jam and cream, made with a cookie cutter.
My Valentine
Valentine’s Day is quite lavishly celebrated between the two of us. There’s a fancy dinner planned in advance and lovingly cooked at home. Or there might be an outing to an excellent restaurant which often means a trip to a nice part of the country.
There'll be a walk if the weather allows or seeing some exciting sights. There are cards with witty funny message. There are gifts beautifully wrapped, favourite chocolates and a bottle of bubbly.
None of it for ME.
Because it is I who makes all that effort on Valentine's Day for The Weather Man. Fourteenth of February is his birthday.
To tell the absolute truth I do get a card too, and a bunch of roses unless I can persuade him not to pay the rip-off Valentine prices.
Frankly I don’t care that much for the occasion as it's a money-spinning exercise for the producers of all things red and heart-shaped. So I'm happy to combine the occasions and sometimes make a proper, full-on birthday cake, and sometimes pander to the hearts and pinks.
Just like with this one: and it's a low-effort, high on impressive factor type of cake. An ideal dessert for Valentine's Day too: two cute individual miniature cakes.
Victoria sponge batter
This is the easiest version: make sure the butter is soft, the eggs at room temperature and just beat the ingredients to smooth batter, with a hand whisk or a mixer. It is not challenging and always comes out perfect.
If you insist on a challenge, check out genoise sponge. It can also be cut into heart shapes, but it's a skilled job and does require a mixer. It produces a heavenly cloud of a lightest sponge though.
A special tin for heart cake?
You don't need a special tin. This batter can be baked in virtually any vessel large enough to allow you to cut out two hearts from the sponge baked in it. I'd recommend using a wide and shallow tin, Swiss roll or similar, because it will yield four hearts at least, to be sandwiched together.
But if you haven't got one, fear not: a smaller, two-heart tin works too as you can slice the baked hearts horizontally and then sandwich them with the filling.
Of course a special heart-shaped tin is excellent too but they are usually bigger and so you'll probably end up with one heart, to split between the two of you - awww, how lovely.
Again, you can bake two separate layers or just one (adjusting the timing accordingly) and split it into layers with a good serrated knife.
Fill the hearts
Jam and cream, what can be simpler or more gorgeous? I recommend good raspberry jam because it's pink but use your favourite.
As for cream, it needs to be plain, that is: without any extra sugar added as the cake with the jam will be sufficiently sweet. Here's a genius tip from Nigella: take it out of the fridge early so it comes to room temperature and it will whip literally at a couple of whisks. Be careful in fact - the first time I followed this advice I ended up with homemade butter.
Happy Valentine!
And that's the cake done bar a dusting of icing sugar. Plus a bonus, or chef's prestige: all the sponge offcuts which I love to spread with butter and have for breakfast on or after Valentine's Day. And if you're not as greedy as me, freeze them for a trifle or a version of Eton mess.
More Valentine dessert recipes
Lemon posset recipe, the best and the easiest. A fabulous dessert prepared in 15 minutes, posset originates from a spiced milky medieval drink. Lemon posset served in shot glasses with seasonal berries or pomegranate seeds and a little whipped cream.
Mini meringue kisses with chocolate ganache filling. Pretty pink coloured meringue drops, filled with the nicest white and dark chocolate ganache.
King Oscar II cake is also known as Swedish almond tart. It's an almond macaron style cake filled with almond buttercream, easy to make and absolutely delightful.
More sponge cake recipes
Victorian Savoy cake, or biscuit de savoie, is the lightest butterless sponge cake. Fuller taste than angel food, more forgiving than genoise and far more sophisticated than Victoria sponge.
Genoise sponge cake with mascarpone and blueberry filling. The celebration gateau that is all about class, simplicity and sophistication. No wonder - genoise is after all the classic sponge recipe of the French patisserie.
Classic Victoria sponge sandwich cake filled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, also known as strawberry shortcake sandwich.