A wonderful special dessert. The grated chocolate and strawberry make it look so special, and the raisins in the cake are a nice surprise.
A favorite to bake and eat, this cake comes in many variations (see Train Cake, Snowman Cake, and Ghost Cake).
Dough:
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
7 oz honey
7 oz sour cream
2 tablespoons whipping cream
3/4 cup raisins
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cups apple juice
grated chocolate for decoration
Cream:
1/2 quart (473 mL) whipping cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Beat in a mixing bowl eggs, sugar. Add soda, sour cream, honey, flour. Mix raisins with spoon. Crease and line a round 10-inch cake pan with baking parchment. Pour the mixture into the pan. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400 F until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Leave to cool then cut into 2 layers. Cut and trim to make a heart-shaped cake. No need to have a heart shaped cake pan to make this cake.
To make the cream, boil an unopened can of condensed milk in a pot for 3 hours. The boiling water should almost cover the can. The condensed milk will become somewhat brown in color and will have consistency of a jam, this is just what you need.
Whisk the whipping cream together with condensed milk (1/2 of the can) using mixer until fluffy, making sure to not overbeat.
Place the first layer of the cake on a serving platter and pour half of apple juice on top of the layer, making it a little wet. Spread the cream on the first layer. Sprinkle with grated chocolate.
Put the second layer on top. Pour juice and spread the rest of the cream.
Decorate the cake with strawberry and grated chocolate.
Keep the cake at room temperature for 2 hours before putting it in the refrigerator for another 2 hours or overnight.
Another way of making a heart shaped cake: instead of baking the batter in one 10 inch round pan, multiple the ingredients on two and divide the batter between one 10-inch round pan and one 10-inch square pan. Bake as directed and let cool. Cut the round cake in half, turn the square cake so it looks like a diamond. Put one half of the round cake on each side of the square cake so that it looks like a heart.
I thought the texture of the cake was very good and the shape and grated chocolate on top were cute additions. I would recommend that since this is a sponge cake, that you might consider a very light soaking syrup to keep the cake from drying out. 🙂
I like your suggestion! In this recipe, I used apple juice for soaking, I didn’t want the cake to be too wet but it is a matter of taste and I will try more soaking syrup next time!