As valentine’s day is rapidly approaching, I thought it would be right to post something festive. So here is a cute cake and although not the easiest, it is rather impressive! 

Ingredients you will need: 

(Cake 1)

• 150g self-raising flour
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g unsalted soften butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 85g ground almonds 
• 100ml milk
• 2 tbsp cocoa power
• Red food colouring 
• 1 1/2 tsp strawberry flavouring - you can use vanilla instead if you wish

(Cake 2)

• 175g self-raising flour                                     
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g unsalted soften butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 85g ground almonds 
• 100ml milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

Method:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 160°C (140°C if fan assisted). Now grease a 900g loaf tin and line with greaseproof baking paper. 

Step 2: Next put the sugar and butter for cake 1 into a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy, it is easiest to do this either in a electric mixing bowl or using a hand held electric whisk.

Step 3: Then beat together the 3 eggs and add to the butter and sugar in small amounts, mixing in-between until all is combined.

Step 4: Now sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa into the bowl, add the almonds and gently fold into the mixture. 

Step 5: Now combine the milk and flavouring (either strawberry or vanilla) and add to the batter. Then add small amounts of food colouring until the mixture is evenly coloured and at the colour you want.

Step 6: Then pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. You will know it is baked if you insert a skewer into the middle of the cake and it comes out clean. Now cool for 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Step 7: When cool, cut the cake into about 4cm slices and then using a 5cm cutter, stamp out the hearts. 

Step 8: Now for cake 2. Use the same loaf tin as before and grease and line it again. Now repeat what you did for cake 1 but you won’t have cocoa or food colouring in this batch and your strawberry flavouring will also be vanilla. Stop when all the ingredients are combined in the bowl.

Step 9: When you have got to this stage pour 3/4 of the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Next push the bottoms of the hearts into this batter in a tight row. Then cover the hearts with the rest of the mixture covering the hearts as much as you can. 

Step 10: Bake for 1 hour at the same temperature as before and again use the skewer technique to check it has baked properly. Cool for around 10 minutes in the tin and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

Step 11: Decorate however you choose! Dust with icing sugar and valentines sprinkles for a simple but effective look or smother in chocolate icing, its really up to you!

Step 12: Enjoy! 

(Original recipe on the BBC Goodfood website)

These pancakes are perfect if you are wanting to do something festive for that someone special but need it to be quick and super easy.

Ingredients you will need: 

- 200g plain flour

- 1 tbsp sugar

- 1 tbsp baking powder

- 1 large egg

- 300 ml milk

- oil for cooking 

- a pinch of salt

- any flavourings you would like; cinnamon, blueberries, lemon, Nutella, syrup- its up to you! 

 (the flavourings can be added before cooking the pancakes or after depending on what you choose)

Method: 

Step 1: Put all the dry ingredients into a large jug or bowl and stir together. 

Step 2: Crack the egg into the milk and lightly whisk. Then add the milk and egg to the jug or bowl a little at a time, mixing well in-between additions. 

Step 3: Heat up a frying pan on a medium to low heat and when warm add some oil and heat gently. 

Step 4: Once you have made sure all the wet and dry ingredients are combined well, and there are no bits of flour still stuck at the bottom of the jug or bowl you can then start to cook your pancakes. 

Step 5: When the pan is warm, not too hot, you can either pour your pancakes in or ladle them. If you just want small circle pancakes, just pour the mixture straight into the pan and stop adding mix when you get to the size you want. I decided to make heart shaped pancakes so i placed a metal cookie cooker in the pan and poured my mixture in that.

Step 6: When the pancakes start to get little bubbles coming through this is when you need to flip them over. The easiest way to do this is with a large spatula and just to go for it. This is where the heart shaped ones got a little tricky so instead of cooking in the heart shaped cookie cutter I just made slightly larger pancakes and cut the hearts out after- this was much much easier! 

Step 7: When the pancakes are nicely coloured on each side flip them out and add any toppings you like and serve! 

Step 8: Enjoy!