Party heart-y ... with chocolate Valentine's cake

February 14th has long held double meaning for me. You see, my sweetie's birthday is the day before Valentine's.

Of course, I almost always make a cake for his birthday. And it's almost always a Valentine's cake.

(That's what I like about cake. So versatile. So willing to go the extra mile.  ;‍-‍)  )

Construction of my Valentine's cake is simple. I build the heart shape by:
1) baking two cakes — one is square; the other is round
2) cutting the round cake into two halves
3) joining the half-circle portions onto adjacent sides of the square cake.

Voila, one lovey-dovey heart.

Chocolate Valentine's Cake

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate (typically, 2 squares from baking chocolate)
• 1/2 oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup multigrain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Beat eggs in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
2. Place chocolate and oil in microwaveable bowl. Microwave at half-power for 2 1/2 minutes, stirring at half-way point to break up chocolate pieces.
3. Add chocolate-oil mixture to beaten eggs. Stir.
4. Add sugar. Stir again.
5. In another medium-sized bowl, mix flour and baking powder. (I measure the flour in a 2-cup measuring cup and just add the baking powder to this. It saves me — er, my loved one — from washing an extra bowl.)
6. Measure milk. Add vanilla to milk.
7. Stir milk and flour mixtures (by thirds) into chocolate mixture.
8. Pour into baking pans, one round and one square. (It's helpful to line pan bottoms with parchment paper and spray sides with oil).
9. Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes.
10. Cool (in pans) for about 20 minutes.
11. Remove from pans. (Easiest to invert pans on cooling rack.)
12. Cool thoroughly, then apply icing.
13. Store in fridge (with or without icing).

Tomorrow I'll pass along the icing recipe.