Our Valentine's Day Cakewith Almond, Carrot and Cream Cheese Frosting

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN 
PER ITALIANO

I had been searching for an heart shaped Valentine's Day cake recipe when I met this one on Pinterest last year. The link took me to a web site, Forum Thermomix, which I was quite familiar with. JulieO, one of the forum's hero members, found this splendid recipe on UK Thermomix web page and served it decorated with a delicious cream cheese frosting.

As a matter of fact, what I had in mind was more like a red or pink coloured cake but I fell in love with the looks of this one. It kind of reminds me wedding cakes. This could be a nice recipe to serve in anniversaries as well.

I would recommend you though not to wait too long to bake it if you miss out Valentine's Day opportunity. It is beautiful, delicious, impressive. I prepared it countless other times since last year.

The recipe is originally intended for a 26cm diameter cake pan. Julie is using a 26cm pan too. My heart shaped pan instead, is a smaller one as you can see from the pictures. This being the case I needed make a few modifications on the original recipe. I basically reduced all the ingredients by 1/3. I believe it would be good for a 20cm pan.
(Note: The pictures that show the pan size are from another recipe so here is the explanation for the brown colored base in the photo)

While reading the ingredients, on the left you can see the original amounts which are intended for a 26cm pan. On the right instead you'll see the amount I used for my pan.


Ingredients:

Cake:
300g 200g blanched almonds
300g 200g sugar
Peel of 1 lemon (without the white)
300g 200g carrot, roughly chopped
4    3 eggs
80g  60g flour
2 1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt

Frosting:
250g 170g Philadelphia
210g 140g sugar
2 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Toasted almond flakes
Kavrulmuş file badem
Candy decorations as you wish


Preparation:

Valentine's Day is coming...

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Our Valentine's Day dinner from last year may give some ideas to those who wish for a romantic, quiet and private dinner at home.

I prepared Creamy Tomato Soup. I cut bread slices with a heart-shaped cookie cutter, toasted them, spread some Roquefort Sauce and placed them in the center of the soup.

I grilled Breaded Chicken Slices. I served them with some mixed vegetable dish using whatever vegetable I had in the fridge.

Additionally I baked Champignon and Smoked Provola Quiche and Farinata di Ceci alle Erbe Aromatiche.

Besides Roquefort Sauce, I already had some Olive Pate and Pepper Salsa in the fridge.

Of course, on this special day we had a nice bottle of white wine which couldn't be missing from our table :)

You may think "But weren't all these too much for only you two?". Yes, they definitely were.  
I had already planned out what to do with the leftovers in the next couple of days. 

Furthermore, I wanted to prepare some material to publish on the blog. It wasn't all for my Valentine's sake you see. Well.. let's keep this last one between us, shall we? ;)

Oh.. There was also a gorgeous cake. You will have to wait for tomorrow for the recipe ;)

Valentine's Day

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN "Sevgililer Günü"
PER ITALIANO "San Valentino"

There are only a couple of days left to San Valentine's Day. I don't know how important these kind of days are in your lives, for me they are. You don't have to throw money around contrary to general belief. What is essential is to be there, in my opinion, to be present with a couple of sweet words, maybe a small note left on his/her pillow, or a small gesture... These are the things that matter.

I haven't much decided yet what to do this year. I know, time is almost up! I have a few ideas though.
Today I would like to share with you the table I prepared last year. It may give some opinion to those who are considering to prepare a romantic dinner for their sweethearts.

As a matter of fact, aside from the heart shaped cake, the stuff on the table weren't exclusive to Valentine's day. Basically I prepared the dishes that we like.

After my Chicken Cordon Bleu burgers were baked, by using a cookie cutter; I cut out heart shape and filled their center with a mixture of mayonnaise and ketchup. That was all. It was a very simple yet romantic presentation.

I prepared Mini Tarts by using Pepper Salsa and Cheese Mousse as filling.

The other things you see on the table are Bread Rolls with Semolina and Salad with Yogurt Mustard Dressing.

And finally we completed our evening with a heart shaped Valentine's Cake.

I would like to wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day in advance...

San Valentine's Cake

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN "Sevgililer Günü Pastası"
PER ITALIANO "Torta di San Valentino"

This San Valentine's day I felt like preparing a lovely table for my Valentine :) Of course it was inevitable to end with a gorgeous cake.

With time, I will publish the recipes of the food I served in my Valentine's Day table. I know, 14th February of 2012 is already passed. However one doesn't have to wait for the next year, we all have some special days, anniversaries, monthversaries, don't we? ;) This cake could make a nice surprise for such days.

San Valentine's Cake came to life as a result of the combination of a few recipes and a pinch of imagination. This was the first time I used my heart-shaped cake tin. I was a bit hesitant though, I don't know, it always looked somewhat not large enough to do anything. However it was ideal for this cake. You'll see its dimension below.

It is not hard to make however it consists of a few stages so you'd better start in a timely manner.

Ingredients:

Cake:
125g butter
120g flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder
160g sugar
70g dessicated coconut
1 bag of vanillin sugar or 1 tsp vaniglia
1 egg

Marmalade Glaze:
160g strawberry marmalade
10g fresh lemon juice

Chocolate coating:
200g white chocolate
100g butter
50g cream

Pink decoration:
50g white chocolate
Red food colouring

Cake Side
Candy sprinkles


Preparation: