Chocolate, Champagne, flowers, a romantic meal a deux or perhaps an M&S dine in for 2 meal deal. How do you choose to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Over the last few years Valentine’s Day has been spent at home with a nice bottle of wine, some good food and something chocolate for dessert. This year, I thought I would make something a little different. Yes, it features chocolate but not in a way you might expect. And it is white chocolate. I know some of you may not approve but a good quality white chocolate  has a creamy vanilla taste that works perfectly here in the whipped white chocolate icing with the faintest hint of pink.

  If you feel like making something a little special, a cake that says it with flowers in both looks and taste then I recommend you try this out. The whipped white chocolate icing could also be replaced with a dark chocolate ganache. It would  work perfectly with the rose scented, raspberry and almond sponge.

But, I can tell you that this is the first buttercream based icing that I have ever made and liked so you may want to give it a go. And it looks so beautiful tinged with a little pink colouring, dotted with rose petals and dusted with pink cake glitter. It is about as skilled as I get with my cake decoration too! I am entering my cake into the Valentine “Tea for Two” Virtual Bake Off competition hosted by Homemade by Fleur, which is being judged by Holly Bell. I hope she likes pink or I am in trouble.

Rose Petal & Raspberry Almond Cake with a Whipped White Chocolate Icing

Adapted from a recipe by Annie Bell

Ingredients for the cake :-

• 4 medium eggs

• 170g rose petal sugar (made by blitzing 2tbsp organic rose petals with 170g of caster sugar in a food processor)

• 1tsp rose water

• 150g frozen raspberries(fresh if in season)

• 250g ground almonds

• 1tsp baking powder

Ingredients for the whipped white chocolate icing :-

• 100g white chocolate (I used Green & Black’s)

• 100g softened unsalted butter

• Pink food colouring

• Organic rose petals for decorating – I used THE SPICE SHOP

• Pink cake glitter

Method for the cake :-

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees.

2. Line a 23cm cake tin with baking parchment.

3. Separate the eggs and whisk up the whites are stiff then transfer to a bowl while you whisk the egg yolks with the rose sugar until they turn pale and creamy. Add in the rose water.

4. Fold in the egg whites in two or three batches making sure you keep the air in the mixture by not over folding the cake mix.

5. Finally fold in the baking powder and the ground almonds. Do this in several goes so as to keep as much air in the cake as you can.

6. Finally fold in the frozen raspberries.

7. Pour the cake mix into the tin and bake for 40 minutes (approx)

8. Remove cake from the oven and let it cool completely before topping with the icing.

Method for the icing :-

1. Melt the white chocolate over a pan of simmering water until it has melted then let it cool completely.

2. Whip the softened butter in a food processor or with an electric hand whisk until it is light and airy. This will take about 3-5 minutes.

3. Pour in the cooled white chocolate and as much pink colouring as you like. I wanted a hint of pink so did not use very much.

4. Whip the icing for a couple of minutes adding more pink if you need to. The icing should be light and airy and very easy to spread.

Method for t he cake decoration :-

1. Cut a heart shaped template the size of your cake tin and cut around the sponge then place on your chosen plate/cake stand.

2. Cover the cake with the icing using a little palette knife making sure you cover the sides as well as the top.

3. Sprinkle the cake with rose petals and cake glitter.

4. Let the icing set before slicing into the cake.

Enjoy with a glass of pink fizz!