Method

Two days in advance – Time consuming work; got to be patience

Dark chocolate egg shapes, and white chocolate heart shapes

Melting dark chocolate: Fill the bottom of a medium saucepan with about 3 inches of water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Place dark chocolate chips in a heat-proof glass bowl that is slightly larger than the saucepan. The bowl should sit on top of pan without its bottom touching the water. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Place the bowl of chocolate over the saucepan of water. Heat the chocolate, stirring occasionally with a dry rubber spatula, until chocolate is mostly smooth and melted, 2 to 4 minutes.

Remove the bowl from the saucepan and continue stirring until the residual heat melts the remaining chocolate and mixture is smooth (return bowl to saucepan, if needed). Stir in oil until melted and set to cool slightly before spooning into the egg shape moulds. Place egg shape moulds in freezer 4-6 hours or overnight to set.

Note: If you don’t have a tray (10) of egg shape mould; do it in batches; freezes the first batch and removed to an air tight container. Then use the same tray egg shape moulds to make more about 20.

Melting white chocolate: Using the same saucepan on the stove and checking enough water: if not enough add some more water about 1-2 inches of water to the saucepan. Place a clean heat-proof bowl over the saucepan. The bowl should fit over the saucepan so that the outer edge of the bowl touches the upper edges of the saucepan (to create a “seal” that will trap steam within the saucepan). Add white chocolate in to bowl.

Turn on the stove to medium heat. As the water begins to simmer and release steam, the steam will heat the chocolate and it will begin to melt. As white chocolate melts, keep stirring with a heat-safe rubber spatula until it is completely melted. Set to cool slightly then pour into a jug so easy to pour into the heart shape moulds, then place in freezer 4-6 hours or overnight to set.

Note: white chocolate can harden and seize quickly, especially if moisture or overheating occurs during the melting process. To soften it, you can add a bit of warm liquid- like boiling water or a fat -like butter or oil. If your chocolate has seized, try adding 1 Tsp of boiling water at a time, stirring vigorously until it smooths out. Adding a small amount of fat-like butter or oil; 1 Tsp while melting can help prevent the chocolate from seizing and keep it smooth and runny. 

If you don’t have a tray (10) of heart shape mould; do it in batches; freeze the first batch and removed to an air tight container. Then use the same tray egg shape moulds to make more about 20.

The following day

Melt 120 g (70%) dark chocolate, broken into pieces in microwave 20 seconds each time for 2- 3 times. Stir each 20 seconds time. Set aside. Put beetroot into Nutri bullet with some beetroot juice; pureed and set aside to cool for later. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 23 cm design round cake pan.

Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, cocoa powder, and salt into a deep plate and mix well. Set aside. Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well before each addition, if necessary, adding a spoonful of flour with the last egg to prevent mixture from curdling.

Beat in beetroot pureed, orange juice, melted 120 g (70%) dark chocolate and thickened cream for 2-4 minutes further. Add flour mixture all at once and use a big metal spoon to mix well; start with North to South folding/mixing and East to West folding/mixing, making sure there are no clumps of flour mixture. Batter should be batter consistency– spoon some batter and see if it flop back-not too watery nor too dry; which it is hard to drop out of spoon. Once batter is batter consistency, it’s time to put into prepared pan.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top of the batter. Give a couple of gentle knocks on the bench top to release air bubbles. Bake for 50 minutes first. Cover if brown quickly with foil or a bigger metal bowl. Time up, check with a skewer, if out wet, place back in for a further 10-15 minutes. My skewer out wet, I put back in for 15 minutes. Check again with skewer all around 5 different spots; skewer out clean. Once done, switch off oven, leave cake in the pan with oven door close for 30 minutes.

Then remove from oven and on to wire rack for 30 minutes before removing from pan and transfer to a lined with foil plate mat. Place cake in fridge for 1 hour. In the last 10 minutes of the 1 hour, melt the melting milk chocolate chips and butter in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir frequently until melted and smooth. Remove from pot, now add in dark chocolate peppermint infused, broken into pieces. Stir until melted. if still not melted put back on top of pot, stir until melted. Remove from pot. Leave to cool a little.

Cover the benchtop with some newspaper – not necessarily; I cover it to prevent my benchtop from the chocolate drippings. Spoon the chocolate over the top of the cake, spreading it to the edges to allow it to drip down the sides all over.

Work quickly, before chocolate harden; using my jelly serrated cutter, cuts 4 long serrated designs and 5 short serrated designs. Push gently two halved hydrated oranges into the first long serrated line, and the remaining two halved gently push in into the second long serrated line. Place back into fridge to let the chocolate glazed harden for 10 minutes.

Bring out the egg and heart shaped chocolates from the freezer to the benchtop to thaw for easy unmoulding for about 10 minutes. Meantime, place foil on the cake base. After unmoulding the chocolates, put them in an airtight container and back into the freezer until needed. Wash the remaining strawberries and grapes and place them in a big airtight container and back in the fridge until needed.

Now bring out the cake. Line with foil the cake base. Gently transfer the cake from plate mat to foiled cake base.

Garnish with one strawberry using a toothpick to hold it steady, and place it in between the first and second short segregated designs; push one blue candle into the glazed cake next to the strawberry. Then place one egg design chocolate on the chocolate glazed area without any serrated design, followed by four white heart shaped chocolates using a bit of the melted chocolate to hold them steady while leaving some space in between them. Next, place one grape using another toothpick to hold it steady in between the last two white heart shaped chocolates.

Scatter both the sprinkles around the dark egg shape chocolate. Just before serving, light the candle. Serve with the extra egg and heart shaped chocolates, strawberries and grapes and with coffee, tea and or dessert wine. Enjoy!!!