Jennifer over at http://tasteeverythingonce.blogspot.com asked for “A recipe for love“** for this month SHF. We should look for stimulating desserts. For Valentine Cooking I chose a dessert with chocolate: Warm chocolate brownies with Baileys sauce, but for this event I bet on vanilla.

So my choice are the

bleeding valentine heart(s)

Vanilla is known as an old aphrodisiac. The stimulating effect of vanilla in connection with the heart shaped, bleeding cake should win everybodys heart, not only on Valentine’s Day.

You need:

12 glasses marbles or small balls of tinfoil
1 recipe batter for white cupcakes made with one vanilla pod, seeds scraped out.
2-3 cups red currant jelly or smooth strawberry jam
200 g icing sugar
reduced beetroot juice
yellow food color
Pastry bag and medium round tip (optional)
Source: //www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/232940
** 16.05.2024

1. Line cupcake tins with paper liners. Fill the liners two-thirds full with the batter. Place 1 marble or tinfoil ball between each liner and the tin. This will make a dent in your cupcake when it bakes to make it heart-shaped. Bake the cupcakes as directed in the recipe. If you are using marbles, be careful when removing the cupcakes from the tins because the marbles will be very hot.

2. With a small paring knife, cut out a circle about the size of a
dime in the center of each cupcake, going about two thirds of the
way in. Pull the little plug of cake out. Cut off the top of this
piece (about 1/2 inch thick) and eat or discard the bottom. Use a
teaspoon or a squeeze bottle to fill the hole partway with the
red currant jelly „blood.“ Put the little cake plug back in. Continue
with the rest of the hearts.

3. Put one half of the icing sugar into two separate bowls. Color one
bowl of frosting with the beetroot juice. Tint the other bowl of
the frosting yellow and dissolve with little water or lemon juice.

4. Frost the cupcakes with the beetroot frosting. Make it super smooth
by dipping a butter or frosting/palette knife in a bowl of hot water
and smoothing it over the top. With the pastry bag or a knife, use
the yellow and red frosting to make veins on the hearts.

**http:tasteeverythingonce.blogspot.com/2006/01/announcing-shf-16-recipe-for-love.html now defunct
** 16.05.2024 https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/232944 available in web archive