Happy Valentine's Day

Ah, the end of a very busy week and it's Valentine's Day! I got a couple cards in the mail, one from my dog, Emmy (she lives with my mom and dad). My mom had outlined her paw on the card, it was the sweetest thing, and it made me miss her even more! Back when I was making pastries for Leaves -n-Beans in Peoria, I used to make these great little Raspberry Mini Cakes with chocolate ganache drizzled down the top. They were the size of a standard cupcake and were pretty popular. I decided for Valentine's Day to "turn up the volume" on them and add a little something extra. You don't have to go to all the trouble I did with the decorating, but with me it's always about presentation! Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day and celebrate the people you love!

Raspberry Mini Cakes

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla ( I use vanilla bean paste)

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Mini Chocolate candy bars (similar to Hershey Nuggets)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 10 muffin cups.

In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla and evaporated milk. Stir in the flour and salt (don't overbeat). Gently fold in the raspberries. Place a heaping teaspoon in each muffin cup, then press one candy piece lightly into the batter. Cover with with another large teaspoon batter, covering completely.

Bake the cakes for 20-22 minutes or until cake are golden around the edges. Cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each cake to loosen, then gently invert onto serving platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar ; serve warm.

A few notes...

If I'm going to top with a spoonful of ganache, then I eliminate the candy in the middle so that there isn't too much chocolate (I can't believe I would suggest there could ever be too much chocolate).

For Valentine's Day I made 4 jumbo cakes rather than the 10 mini cakes. I put 2 pieces of candy in each cake.

For the decorations, I simply melted chocolate chips in the microwave, placed the melted chips in a pastry bag and made heart shapes on a wax paper lined baking sheet. I let them set up in the fridge and then peeled them off and added them to the presentation. Do this as close to serving time as possible.