How to Bake a Valentine’s Day Broken Heart Chocolate Cake--Kenny

If you are finding yourself single on Valentine’s Day, you just got your heart broken, or you’re just lonely, this is the cake for you! Bake this cake, show it off, and make all those guys/girls who rejected you jealous, with this simple and tasty recipe for a broken heart chocolate cake.

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For this recipe, you will need a heart shaped cake pan, nonstick cooking spray, and a 15-ounce box of chocolate cake mix. You will also need a ⅔ cup of sugar, ¼ cup corn syrup, ¼ cup of cream of tartar, one 12-ounce box assorted chocolates, ¼ cup heavy cream, another 1 ½ cup of heavy cream, and another ¼ cup of sugar.  As your box of cake mix will have its own set of instructions and ingredients that is required to make the cake batter, reference the box for the additional ingredients, such as eggs, flour, etc. You will also need kitchen utensils like a spatula, whisk, and mixing bowls. If you have one, you can use an electric mixer to whip up your cake batter faster and easier, especially if you are too lazy to mix it by hand.

1.     First, you’re going to preheat the oven to 350°F, then spray your 9-inch heart pan with cooking spray, and dust with a little flour. This is so the cake does not stick to the pan, and so your cake come out smoothly.

2.     Second, take your box of assorted chocolates and melt in a pan along with ¼ cup of heavy cream. It is not necessary to have to use assorted chocolates. Regular chocolate bars or other types of chocolates can be substituted, but just make sure to add the proper measurement. This mixture will form your chocolate coating which will acts as the frosting on the cake. Stir this mixture over medium-low heat until smooth, then set the mixture aside to cool.

3.     Now we’re going to make our sugar glass shards. Place aluminum foil or parchment paper over a baking sheet, then begin to mix the ⅔ cup of sugar, the ¼ cup corn syrup, and the ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar in a bowl together, and then proceed to microwave the mixture in the bowl (make sure your bowl is microwave-safe) until the mixture turns a golden-brown color. Then, take the microwaved sugar mixture and, with a spatula or a knife, create a thin rectangle of the mixture on your baking sheet. You do not have to use all the mixture, but you most likely will as the mixture is spread thinly. Take the sheet with your thin rectangle of the sugar mixture on it and place it in the refrigerator. You want to refrigerate the sheet for about 15 minutes, and once the rectangle has hardened, use a utensil or a hammer to break it into pieces so that it looks like shards of glass.

4.     For your whipped cream, all you need to do is whip the 1 ½ cup heavy cream and the ¼ cup sugar together until smooth. If you want, you can just use store bought whipped cream, but for the real authentic bakers out there, follow these instructions.

5.     This part of the recipe gets a little tricky and takes the most time because of the actual baking and assembly of the cake. Follow the basic instructions on your box of cake mix to make your batter, then pour the batter into the 9-inch heart pan. Take care not to burn yourself as you place the cake in the oven and set it to bake for 45 minutes. Make sure to use oven mitts when removing your cake from the oven and use a toothpick to see if the cake is fully baked. If your toothpick comes out clean, you’re ready to proceed to the assembly stage. To begin, use a knife to shave the top of the cake so that it becomes flat. Then cut the cake in half horizontally (so that you will have two hearts) and spread your whipped cream on the bottom heart. Once you stack the hearts back on top of each other, so that the whipped cream is sandwiched in the middle, cut jaggedly down the two layers so that it resembles a broken heart (like a zig-zag). Then, drizzle the melted chocolate coating that we previously made over the top of the cake and along the sides. Finally, take your sugar glass shards and decorate the cake.

Congratulations, your cake is now ready to eat!