Valentine's Day Number Cake

Hello food lovers,

This week I'm sharing a recipe for Valentine's Day.

I love making number cakes, so here's a red berry and vanilla version in the shape of a heart.

For 6 mini number cakes you will need:

Red berry mascarpone whipped cream:

- 80gr whole cream

- 8gr icing sugar

- 35gr mascarpone

- 80gr frozen mixed red berries

- 1 gelatine sheet

Vanilla whipped ganache:

- 50gr white chocolate

- 160gr whole cream

- 1/2 gelatine sheet

- 1 vanilla pod

Shortbread pastry:

- 70gr butter

- 43gr icing sugar

- 15gr egg

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 0.7gr salt

- 125gr flour

Decorations:

- Bordeaux chocolate pearls

- White sugar pearls

- Small pink meringues

- Raspberries

- Blueberries

We'll start by making the red berry mascarpone whipped cream.

Red berry mascarpone whipped cream

Defrost 80gr of red berries.

Soak 1 gelatine sheet in a jug of cold water.

In a bowl, place 80gr of previously defrosted red berries and 8gr of icing sugar.

Blend the red berry and icing sugar mixture.

It doesn't need to be completely smooth as we'll blend it again later.

In a saucepan, pour 80gr of whole cream and 35gr of mascarpone.

Bring everything to a boil, stirring occasionally so the mascarpone melts and combines with the cream.

Once the mixture comes to a boil, remove it from the heat.

Squeeze out the gelatine and add it to the mascarpone/cream mixture.

Mix everything well.

Pour the still-warm cream/mascarpone/gelatine mixture over the red berry purée.

Using a hand blender, blend everything until the mixture is completely smooth and homogeneous.

Cover with cling film directly on the surface of the mixture to prevent a skin from forming.

Ideally, do this step the day before and leave it to cool in the fridge for at least 12h.

If that's not possible, place the mixture in the freezer for about 1h, stirring every 15 minutes, then 1h in the fridge.

Now let's take care of the base for the whipped ganache.

Vanilla whipped ganache

Soak 1/2 gelatine sheet in a jug of cold water.

Place 50gr of white chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute at 600Watt.

Mix well and put back in for 30 seconds at 600Watt.

It's fine if the chocolate isn't completely melted.

In a saucepan, pour 160gr of whole cream.

Cut 1 vanilla pod in half lengthwise and add it to the cream.

Bring the cream and vanilla pod to a boil.

Once the mixture comes to a boil, remove it from the heat.

Squeeze out the gelatine and add it to the cream/vanilla mixture.

Mix well.

Pour the cream/gelatine/vanilla mixture over the chocolate in 3 additions. That means pouring one third of the cream over the chocolate and mixing, then repeating this step 2 more times.

Once all the cream has been added to the chocolate and the mixture is smooth and homogeneous, cover with cling film directly on the surface.

Ideally, do this step the day before and leave it to cool in the fridge for at least 12h.

If that's not possible, place the mixture in the freezer for about 1h, stirring every 15 minutes, then 1h in the fridge.

Now, let's make the shortbread pastry.

Shortbread pastry

Start by placing 70gr of butter and 43gr of icing sugar in the mixer bowl.

Weigh out 0.7gr of salt — to be precise I use a spoon scale, I love it, it's really great.

Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Using the flat beater (K attachment), beat the butter, icing sugar, salt and vanilla extract at maximum speed until fluffy.

Add 15gr of egg to the previous mixture, then mix at maximum speed for 1 minute.

Add 125gr of flour and mix just briefly at minimum speed for 30 seconds. This is really important, otherwise the gluten may over-develop and your biscuit will puff up during baking...

We'll finish mixing the dough by hand without over-kneading it.

Then shape it into a ball.

Place the dough on a sheet of baking paper, then cover it with another sheet of baking paper.

Place 2 rolling guides of 3 mm on each side.

Using a large rolling pin, roll out the dough to the height of the guides.

Place the dough on a perforated baking tray and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Prepare a perforated baking tray with a perforated baking mat.

We'll use the heart-shaped cookie cutters, the largest (8 cm) and the smallest (4 cm) from the set.

Take the dough out of the freezer, cut out the large heart then a small heart in the centre.

We'll need 12 in total — if you don't have enough dough from the first roll, reshape the scraps into a ball, roll it out again, place it in the freezer, and cut out the remaining hearts.

Place the tray in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan-forced.

After 15 minutes in the freezer, bake the tray for about 12 minutes.

It's assembly time! :-)

Assembly

We'll start by preparing the creams.

Pour the red berry mascarpone mixture into the mixer bowl.

Using the whisk, whip it like a whipped cream.

Prepare a piping bag fitted with a round tip N°8.

Place the whipped cream in the bag. Set it aside in the fridge for later.

Now it's the vanilla ganache's turn. Pour the vanilla ganache into the mixer bowl.

Whip it like a whipped cream — be careful, it will whip faster than regular whipped cream. Keep a close eye on it so it doesn't split!

Prepare a piping bag fitted with a round tip N°8.

Place the cream in the bag. Set it aside in the fridge for later.

We'll start by piping the red berry whipped cream onto 6 biscuits.

At the bottom of the heart I piped just one small dot, while at the top, two small dots.

Place a biscuit on top of the red berry whipped cream.

Pipe the vanilla whipped ganache on the top heart.

Just like the red berry whipped cream, I piped one small dot at the bottom of the heart and two at the top.

Now for my favourite part ;-)

Decorations

I started by placing the fruits — here I used raspberries and blueberries.

I cut the raspberries into 4 pieces and the blueberries in half.

In our range we have lots of fun little decorations for number cakes.

For these ones, I used bordeaux chocolate pearls, white sugar pearls and mini pink meringues.

The number cakes keep for about 2 days in the fridge in a cardboard box for example.

Here is my version of the mini number cakes for Valentine's Day — I hope you'll love it.

Let your imagination run wild with the decorations. ;-)

Wishing you a lovely Sunday and a wonderful Valentine's Day, food lovers!

Sophie

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.