When I think about Valentine’s Day, I always have something with chocolate in mind. It is just… love is something sweet, slightly bitter. Like chocolate with 70% cocoa.

Chocolate makes happy. That’s a fact. Cocoa activates hormones which make us feel good. And, by the way, the desire of humans to eat sweet things is buried deep in our genes and therefore a natural craving. I read this. It was a serious source.

That means these cake pops will definitely make you happy. Chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate coating. Nevertheless, they are not too sweet sooo… Just wonderful.

And here is the recipe:

Triple Chocolate Cake Pops

(makes about 50 pops)

cake:
250 g (2 sticks + 1 tbsp) butter, room temperature
200g (1 cup – 1 tbsp) sugar
4 eggs
250 g (2 cups) all purpose flour
50 g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt

frosting:
200g (7 oz) cream cheese
60 g (2 oz) butter
80 g (¾ cup) powdered sugar
2 tbsp nutella
½ tsp. Vanilla extract

icing:
400 g (14 oz) chocolate
50 lollipop sticks

optional:
sprinkles

Whisk together the flour baking powder, cocoa powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside. Preheat oven to 180° C (350° F).

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl, until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and stir until fully incorporated. Now add the dry ingredients and stir until the dough is smooth.

Transfer the mixture into an oiled pan – I always use my round 26 cm (10 inch) pan but a 22 cm x 12 cm (9´´ x 5´´) pan or a round 22 cm (9´´) pan works as well – and bake about 25 minutes until a toothpicker comes out clean.

Let the cake cool completely, then remove the hard edges. Now crumble the cake into a large bowl. This you can do easily with the help of a grater.

Prepare the frosting. For this, place the butter and nutella into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 25 seconds. Add the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract and stir until the frosting is smooth.

Combine the crumbles and the frosting and stir until you get a dough-like mixture by using your hands. Form little balls with a diameter of about 3 cm (1 inch) out of the mass. Place them in the freezer for about 15 minutes or in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Prepare a bowl with sprinkles. Chop the chocolate and melt it in your microwave or using the water bath method. Place a layer of parchment paper onto a large rectangular cake pan.

Dip in each lollipop stick into the melted chocolate first, then place into the truffle ball. Dip in the pops into the chocolate, dip in sprinkles and put them into the pan. Let these babies dry and do not hesitate to try! :)

Pinterest, stop it! This platform is full of creative people out there and I cannot stop admiring them. In search of ideas for Valentine’s Day cupcakes, I came acrosse one of Martha Stewart’s recipes. I love berries, fruit in general, so these sounded attracting to me.

I decorated them with the easiest cream cheese frosting of all time, sprinkles and heart balloon toppers. To make the toppers, you need white paper-covered wire and fondant. Form hearts of fondant and spit them onto the wire. Now you can twist the wire a little to make it look like a balloon string. They make such cute cupcake toppers.

Let me describe their taste to you. They are soft, moist and fresh because of the berries inside. I added yoghurt, not milk to the dough, which made its consistence indefinable, somewhere between sponge cake and cheesecake. The sweet cream cheese on top fits it very well.

Here the recipe from www.marthastewart.com

(slightly changed and converted for 12 cupcakes)

batter:

125 g (1 stick + 1 tbsp) butter, softened
250g (1 1/8 cup) sugar
3 large eggs
3 tbsp cornstarch
250g (2 1/8 cups) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla exctract
180 ml (3/4 cup) greek yoghurt
250 g (6 oz) mixed berries

frosting:

300g (10 oz) cream cheese
6 tbsp powdered sugar (or as much your sweet tooth needs)

Preeat oven to 175°C (350°F). Sift together cornstarch, flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside until needed.

Cream eggs and butter + vanilla well. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporate each egg. Stir in the dry ingredients carefully. Add greek yoghurt. Pour in the berries and stir just until they are evenly spread in the batter.

Bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpicker comes out clean in a lined muffin pan. Let cool.

Cream powdered sugar and cream cheese. Allocate on top of each cupcake.

Decorate and eat!