It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow. I don’t celebrate it, nor do I have any reason to celebrate it (what a shame). But I thought it would be nice to bring a special cake to work. Lorraine Pascale‘s ‘I can’t believe you made that’ cake seemed perfect for the occasion. Chocolate sponge, surrounded by chocolate cigarellos and topped with raspberries, the rich colours of the chocolate and red raspberries, surely quite apt for V day.

We were supposed to have our bake-off in the design department tomorrow, but one of the guys is away this weekend, so we’re postponing ours to the week after, I think. I was planning to make this cake for my entry, but I’ll have to find another cake to make now. Might be a bit difficult to make a cake that’ll look even more impressive than this one. You’ll have to watch Baking Made Easy, (it’s available on BBC iPlayer) if you haven’t already, it’s got some good recipes and tips.

This recipe was from the first episode, I modified it slightly by making a chocolate genoise sponge instead of following the cake recipe and added an extra touch, tying a ribbon and bow (well, my flatmate helped me out as I’m a bit useless with tying ribbons) around the cake. I also arranged the raspberries neatly instead of just tossing them into the middle like in the show, mostly because of my flatmate’s suggestion.

Chocolate genoise sponge (9-in round cake)

5 large eggs
1 cup sugar
⅓ cup cocoa powder
⅔ cup plain flour
pinch of salt
57g melted butter

Grease and line a 9-in round tin. Melt the butter and let it cool. Using an hand-held mixer, beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl over simmering water for 5 minutes, till the mixture is lukewarm. Take it off the heat and beat for 5-7 minutes longer, till the mixture has cooled down, has tripled in volume and is shiny. In three batches, sift the cocoa powder+plain flour+salt over the mixture and gently fold into it. When everything is incorporated, add a bit of the mixture to the cool melted butter and then fold it back into the mixture. Fill the tin with the mixture and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool slightly before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the buttercream

300g butter, softened
550g icing sugar
120g dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

Put the butter and icing sugar in a bowl and whisk together until the mixture goes fluffy. Add the cooled, melted chocolate and whisk for a further two minutes.

When the cake has cooled, slice the cake horizontally into half. Sandwich the two layers with the buttercream and then spread half of the remaining buttercream all over the top and sides of the cake. Put it in the fridge to set before doing another layer. After you’re done with the second layer, surround the cake with the cigarellos and then top with raspberries in the middle of the cake. And there you have it, an amazing-looking cake.

I was making some macarons to go along with it as well, but they were an epic fail, probably because I didn’t use aged egg whites, I’d been working late these past few days and had no time to pop to the store before the weekend. I used the quick blast in the microwave method, but I probably also over-folded the mixture, I was terribly disorganised this time, I forgot what I was doing a lot and lost count of the strokes while folding. I can’t believe I managed to get it right the first time and totally failed this time. Surely you’re supposed to get better with each try? Mmmm, never mind, there’s always next time.

To everyone who’s celebrating Valentine’s Day, have a wonderful day with your loved ones. I look forward to sharing this beautiful cake with everyone at Agency Republic tomorrow.