Flowers have always been the main ‘thing’ for Valentine’s Day but The Food Critic is not really big on giving me flowers (the last time I got a bouquet of flowers was so many years ago, I don’t even remember when it was).
Still, this year, I got a pleasant surprise when he came back with a plainly wrapped bouquet of white calla lilies and gruffly gave it to me (yes, The Food Critic gets very gruff when it comes to sweet, romantic stuff). Now, calla lilies may not seem romantic to some people but it is quite meaningful to us because I had a bunch of ribbon-tied white calla lilies as my wedding bouquet many years ago.
In return, I gave him roses and a heart. Edible ones, of course.
If you look closely, the edges of the ‘cake’ are sorta cracked and that’s because it’s the first time I was working with pliable chocolate (recipe below) to form the heart-shape and also the roses. Let me tell you, the recipe seemed simple enough but I probably added too much liquid glucose. Or maybe I left it out to cool for too long. Whatever it is, I didn’t have time to re-do since I already made a first attempt and failed (the chocolate hardened to a rock-like consistency). Besides, it will still end up being eaten SO I didn’t really go crazy into wanting to perfect it. Maybe I’ll try making it again next time and really perfect it.
I got the recipe from a set of Chocolate wipeable recipe cards I bought a while back:
Here are the recipes for the pliable chocolate and the chocolate mousse filling for the chocolate heart.
Chocolate Roses
Ingredients
115g plain chocolate
2 tbsp liquid glucose
icing sugar
cocoa powder
Instructions
1. Either cut or break the chocolate into smaller pieces
2. Melt the chocolate by placing it on a bowl over a pan of simmering water
3. Remove the melted chocolate from heat and add the liquid glucose
4. Stir the mixture until it became a smooth paste and it comes away from the sides of the bowl. Then place it on a plastic bag and cool till firm but pliable. Then, lightly knead the paste till smooth.
6. Roll the paste out with a rolling pin (but remember to dust the work surface with icing sugar first)
7. Use a round cookie cutter and cut out circles from the paste
8. Then you fold the first small circle into a tight roll to form the centre of the rose. After that, you add the petals around it.
As you can see, my rose petals are too thick because I didn’t roll out the paste thinly enough. Since I already formed the roses, it was a bit too late for me to redo (and I was in a rush to do it before The Food Critic gets back from work so that I could surprise him with it).
So, a bit of advice on working with these:
1. Do not add too much glucose.
2. Do not leave it in the fridge to cool for too long or else it will harden
3. Roll it out as thinly as possible.
After forming the roses, I dust it lightly with some cocoa powder. The balance of the paste, I use to form the heart shape.
Now, on to the chocolate mousse filling:
Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
90ml double cream
4 eggs, separated
70g organic brown molasses (you can use plain fine sugar too)
4 tbsp rum
Instructions
1. Place the chocolate and cream in a bowl over a pan of simmering water to melt.
2. Place the egg yolks and molasses in a bowl and beat till creamy
3. Add the melted chocolate to the creamy egg mixture
4. Transfer the mixture into a pan and cook over low heat but do not bring to a boil. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Then add the rum and stir till combined.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks form.
6. Fold the egg white into the chocolate mixture
7. Pour the mixture into the heart shaped chocolate. Dust with cocoa powder and decorate as you like it. Ready to serve!
It may not be as pretty as it was supposed to be but fortunately The Food Critic loved it! He normally doesn’t like chocolate so I used extra dark chocolate (the only kind of chocolate he likes) for all the recipes and so, he finished the mousse and didn’t have the heart to eat the roses….heheheh…so Mr Picky ate part of the roses and The Food Critic shared some of it with me.
So, how was your Valentine?
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Oh! Just beautiful! Happy valentine’s to you.
+Jessie
a.k.a. The Hungry Mouse
Jessie’s last blog post..Sweet Valentine’s Mice