Valentine's Day Heart Swiss Roll

Here is a cute idea for a Valentine's Day dessert. It's pretty simple but looks pretty impressive. For this creation you are going to need:

Equipment

• Scissors
• Piece of card
• Piece of paper
• Pencil
• Baking tray
• Greaseproof paper
• Ziploc bag
• Small mixing bowl
• Spatula
• Electric whisk/stand mixer
• Hand whisk

Ingredients

• 5 eggs (1 of which is separated)
• 200g caster sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 20g soft butter (plus extra for greasing)
• Red food colouring
• 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of icing sugar (plus extra to dust surface)
• A splash of milk
• 240ml double (heavy) cream.

If you've got access to a printer, disregard the below and just print a sheet of hearts!

What you'll need:

• Pen/pencil
• Scissors
• Small piece of card (I used some junk mail)
• Piece of A4 paper

First, fold a piece of card in half. Draw half a heart against the fold line. Cut it out and hopefully you have a symmetrical heart!

On a piece of A4 paper draw some straight(ish) lines to align the heart shape against. Trace around the heart until you're about 2/3 of the way across the page. I'd suggest a pencil for this, as you can see using a pen started to erode the edges of the card heart for me!

What you'll need:

• 1 egg white
• 30g caster sugar
• 40g plain flour
• 20g soft butter
• 8 drops of red food colouring (I used Dr Oetker gel)
• Baking tray
• Greaseproof paper
• Ziploc bag (or piping bag)

1. Seperate the egg white from he yolk, the easiest way to do this is to crack the egg into your hand and let the white drop through your fingers.
2. Whisk the egg white lightly in a bowl and then add the sugar and flour. Beat until well combined.
3. Add the softened butter and really beat it in, I find I have to push the batter against the side of the bowl in order to completely smush in the butter.
4. Add food colouring and mix until an even colour.
5. Put the mixture into the corner of a ziploc bag.
6. Cut a very small corner off the ziploc bag in order to pipe through.
7. Put the template at one end of the baking tray, cover in greaseproof paper, and lightly grease it.
8. Pipe the hearts on top of the greaseproof paper.
9. Put in the freezer for 15 minutes to set the hearts.

You'll need:

• 3 medium free-range eggs
• 170g caster sugar
• 100g plain flour
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• A little milk to loosen the mixture
• Icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/375f
2. Beat the eggs with a stand mixer, or electric hand whisk, for a few minutes until they become pale.
3. Add the sugar and continue to beat until it's gained more volume.
4. Sieve the cocoa powder, flour, and baking powder into the mixture and fold in.
5. If the mixture is a little thick add in a splash of milk (I wish I had added more!).
6. Remove the hearts from the freezer and spread the batter over the hearts, try and make it as even as possible.
7. Bake it in the oven for 7-10 minutes. Check it is ready by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean.
8. Immediately tip out onto a piece of greaseproof paper covered in icing sugar, remove the paper from the top of the hearts and flip over so the hearts are facing down.
9. Roll up from the end without the hearts, including the greaseproof paper and leave to cool.

I like a light roll so made a whipped cream mixture using:

• 240ml heavy (double) cream
• 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons of icing sugar

1. Sieve cocoa powder and icing sugar into the cream.
2. Whisk until the cream is whipped, be careful or you'll overwhip it like I did!
3. Gently unfold the roll, you'll see it's developed a memory for it's rolled shape.
4. Fill the roll with the cream mixture and roll back up.
5. Neaten up the edges by cutting them off and then enjoy!