A Little Love (of Chocolate) this Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is fast approaching.  I'm not one for making it into a big celebration.  A simple card, some sweet treats and telling those you love that you love them is what is important.  So for this Valentine's Day try these two takes on one recipe.  Chocolate Brownies are a favourite in this household.  Getting them right does sometimes come with practice as you really want that fudgey texture with a crisp top.  With this recipe you can achieve that too. 

Chocolate Brownie Heart Cake

 For the first have of the batter I made it into a Heart Shaped Brownie.  Finished it off with a dusting of icing sugar and some love hearts sprinkled on top.  Baked for around 25 minutes - times do depend on your pan shape as well.  This one also served as my birthday cake this year.  Turned out great, but did have little extra crunchy edges at the point and on the rounded top.  Still tasted and looked fantastic.  Very Valentine's!

Mini Brownie Cupcakes

These were for the kids.  Perfect sized for a 3 and 1 year old to have two and think they are getting more!  Baking of these can be a little tricky as you really need to watch that you don't over bake them.  They only need around 12-15 minutes.  But watch them carefully! Finished the same way, dusted with icing sugar and sprinkled with some love.

Wishing you and yours a Happy Valentine's Day!

Chocolate Brownies

150g Butter
1 cup baking cocoa
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

optional extras:
packet of white choc bits or cup of nuts

• Preheat oven to 160C.  Line base of a 27cm x 18cm x 3cm tin with baking paper.
• Melt butter and stir in cocoa, allow to cool slightly.  Beat in eggs.  Stir in sugar and vanilla.
• Sift flour and baking powder together.  Add to mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed.  Stir through choc bits or nuts if being added.  Turn mixture into tin.
• Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50minutes or until just firm when pressed in the centre.  Leave in tin for 20 minutes then turn out onto a rack.  When cold, cut into bars.

Hints:

• If using different shape pans, baking times will vary so be sure to keep an eye on brownies
• An option is to bake in the full size pan, then use cookie cutters once cool to cut into desired shapes such as a heart cookie cutter.
• Can drizzle melted chocolate over or dust with icing sugar to fancy it up!