Spread love on Valentine's Day

Set the oven to 200 °C.

Quickly work the pastry ingredients together to make a dough. Leave to rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Chop the chocolate and cut up the marshmallows if using the large ones.

Roll the pie dough out on a floured surface, about 4 mm thick. Cut out hearts using a heart-shaped cutter and place on a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Brush with whisked egg white. Sprinkle a little chocolate and some marshmallows on half of them.

Place the remaining hearts on top and press the edges together using a fork. Press a lollipop stick into each heart and brush with egg white. Sprinkle with cane sugar.

Bake in the lower part of the oven for about 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Whisk the butter, soft brown sugar, muscovado sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Add the milk and the flour and beat together.

Chop the almonds and hazelnuts and add to the mixture. Leave to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a thickness of 2 mm. Cut out hearts using a small heart-shaped cutter and place in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the dark chocolate. Remove the heart shapes. Dip in the chocolate and sprinkle with a little chopped nuts. Leave to set in the refrigerator.

Set the oven to 175 °C.

Mix the butter and flour together in a food processor until the mixture starts to form crumbs. Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, egg yolks and water. Work together quickly to make a dough. Place the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, make the butter cream and raspberry jelly. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla sugar together to a smooth mixture. Set the butter cream aside.

Thaw and mix the raspberries, and boil together with the jelly sugar multi in a saucepan for about 1 minute. The jelly should be a little stiffer than a jam. Put the jelly in a clean jar and leave to cool.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface, about 4 mm thick. Cut out hearts using a ginger biscuit cutter and place on greaseproof paper. Cut out a smaller heart or a round circle from the middle of half of the hearts.

Bake the cakes in the lower part of the oven for about 8-10 minutes. Check carefully towards the end so that they do not get too dark. Allow to cool.

When the cakes are completely cool, spread a thin layer of the butter cream on the cakes without a hole. Place a dollop of raspberry jelly in the middle of the heart, and place a cake with a hole in on top. Store in a tin with lid.

Muffins
Pre-heat the oven to 200 °C.
Melt the butter.
Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy.
Fold in the melted butter, milk and chopped lemon zest.
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt and sieve into the mixture.
Wash the strawberries, chop them into small pieces and fold them into the mixture.
Line a muffin tray with paper cups and divide the mixture evenly between them.
Bake the muffins in the centre of the oven for about 10 minutes or until they are golden brown. (Test using a skewer; when you pull it out it should be completely dry.)
Pipe icing on top before serving.

Icing
Beat the butter, sieved icing sugar and strawberry powder until fluffy.
Whisk in the cheese and lemon juice.
Fold in the strawberry jam.
Pipe or spread the icing onto the muffins.

Beat the butter and sugar until smooth.
Fold in the cocoa powder, chocolate, oats and cognac/apple juice. Finally, fold in the freeze-dried raspberries.
Form into balls, dip in the melted chocolate, place on a baking sheet and decorate with a few freeze-dried raspberries.

For the blackberry compote, mix the berries and sugar in a saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes. Leave to cool.
For the chocolate mousse, break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a microwave oven or over a water bath.
Stir the sugar, syrup and egg yolk into the melted chocolate. Stir to a smooth mixture. Set aside to cool.
Lightly whisk the cream. Mix 1/3 of the cream into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the remaining cream.
Fold some of the blackberry compote into the chocolate mousse. Save the rest for decoration.
Divide the mousse between sundae dishes and leave to cool in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Chop up the chocolate and set aside.
Bring the cream, strawberry purée, cardamom and syrup to the boil.
Pour the warm cream over the chopped chocolate and stir to a smooth mixture. Leave to cool for at least 4 hours.
Form into round balls and dip in the white chocolate. Decorate with a few freeze-dried strawberries or crushed cardamom.

For the panna cotta, mix the cream, jelly sugar, and vanilla sugar in a saucepan and boil for 30 seconds.
Pour into eight small dishes and put in the refrigerator to set.
For the marinated berries, rinse and sort the berries, mix with the juice and peel of the lime, the sugar and vanilla sugar.
Leave to stand until the sugar has dissolved, and add to the panna cotta.

Whisk together the egg and muscovado sugar until light and fluffy. Combine the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture. Stir in the margarine and water. Pour the mixture into a greased, crumbed, rectangular tin, about 1 1/2 litres capacity. Bake in the lower part of the oven at 175 °C for about 40 minutes. Use a skewer to check that the cake is dry in the middle.

Combine the chocolate, whipping cream and icing sugar in a saucepan and simmer gently until the truffle has thickened. Stir in the fat and whisk until cooled.

Mix together all the ingredients for the icing.

Cut 10 slices from the sponge cake. Sandwich the slices together 2 and 2 with a little of the truffle. Divide each double slice into 4 pieces. Ice each one with a little icing. Pipe a ring of truffle on top of each cake. Combine the ingredients for the decoration and place a spoonful in the middle.

Pre-heat the oven to 175 °C.

Process the biscuits and mix in the melted butter and sugar.

Add a tablespoon of the biscuit mix to the bottom of the muffin cups. Press down into an even layer.

Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.

Blend the raspberries, icing sugar and vanilla sugar.

Sieve the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to separate the seeds from the raspberry purée, and set aside.

Whisk together the sugar and flour, add the cream cheese, lemon zest and vanilla sugar, and mix until smooth.

Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the whipping cream.

Divide the cheese mixture among the muffin cups.

Draw a circle of raspberry sauce on each cheesecake. Use a toothpick to create the swirl effect.

Bake for 15–20 minutes until the filling has set.

Leave the cheesecakes to cool completely, and then refrigerate to allow them to set.

Garnish with fresh raspberries.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Work in the butter/margarine and egg yolk. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour, then press the dough into greased heart-shaped tins. Bake at the centre of the oven for 6 minutes at 200 °C. While the hearts are baking, mix together the ingredients for the filling. Divide the filling between the pre-baked heart tins. Bake for a further 5-7 minutes. Allow the hearts to cool before removing them from the cases. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Set the oven temperature to 100 °C. On the back of a sheet of baking parchment, draw hearts measuring about 10 cm in height. You’ll need to make three hearts for each meringue stack. Grease the heart shapes and sprinkle them with flour. Beat the egg whites, vinegar and half the sugar until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the rest of the sugar. Spread or pipe the mixture into the prepared heart shapes. You can use the remaining mixture to make ordinary meringues. (These make a delicious dessert mixed, for instance, with whipped cream and/or ice cream.) Bake at the centre of the oven for approximately 45 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Whip the cream with the jelly sugar and vanilla sugar until firm. Fold the berries and fromage frais into the cream. Sandwich the meringues with the filling just before serving. (If you want to assemble the stacks in advance, brush them with melted chocolate to prevent the filling from softening the meringue. If you use white chocolate, it won’t show.) Decorate the meringue stacks with some fruit or berries and dust with icing sugar.