Valentine’s Day is almost upon us
and, as we know, one can never start planning too early for these Hallmark
holidays! So I decided to mark this particular holiday’s impending arrival with
one of my favorite cakes: Love-Struck Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate
Coconut Filling. The recipe is from my latest book, Flavorful
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), and it’s the best
Valentine’s Day dessert I can think of – two layers of moist, fudgy chocolate
cake filled with a white chocolate coconut whipped ganache and covered in a
dark chocolate glaze. (Make sure to prep the pan as directed, or you might just
end up with a broken heart, which would be
terribly sad.) If you’re not a
coconut fan (as my own true love is not, though he did somehow manage to choke
down a slice of this particular cake in record time), simply leave it out. You
can substitute shaved chocolate or finely chopped nuts for the coconut as
garnish on the outside of the cake. Finally, please do use a good
quality white
chocolate for the filling—nothing worse than a cheap white chocolate, I say.
Green & Black’s, Lindt, Valrhona or Guittard are excellent brands, in my
book. Happy Valentine’s Day!
