People usually make Valentine’s Day special dinner but order a cake or pastry for dessert. This year, make some extraordinary desserts to end the romantic dinner on a sweet note. It is not as difficult as it seems and we are here to help. Here’s how to make the magic chocolate flower, carrot cake and butter pecan cookie. These Valentine’s Day recipes are created by Maria Goretti on her show ‘I Want to Bake Free.’  (ALSO READ Valentine’s Day 2018 Restaurant Offers: Dine at These Romantic Restaurants in Mumbai Without Burning a hole in Your pocket This Valentine’s Day).

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake
Carrot cake

Ingredients:

1 tin (400g) Sweetened Condensed Milk

100g-Butter

200g-Maida (Flour)

1 tsp-Baking Powder

1 tsp-Soda Bicarbonate

1 tsp-Jaiphal (Nutmeg) Powder

1 cup (150 ml)-Aerated Soda

3 cups-Carrots Grated

Method:

Preheat oven to 180-degree Celsius, grease and dust a baking tin of 8” diameter with maida. Sieve together maida, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg powder. Dust carrots with 2-3 tablespoons of maida to prevent them from settling at the bottom.

Soften butter and add NESTLÉ MILKMAID Sweetened Condensed Milk and mix well. Add a few tbsp of maida mix to MILKMAID mixture, stir and then add some aerated soda and mix again. Repeat alternatively maida and aerated soda till all the maida and soda are used up. Fold in carrots.

Pour batter into the prepared baking dish and bake in the pre-heated oven at 180 0 C for 45-50 minutes, or till done.

Remove the cake from the tin and allow it to cool on a wire rack for 5-10 min. Slice and serve.

Butter Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups pecan halves

Method:

In a large bowl, cream butter, brown sugar and egg. Mix until well blended.

Slowly add flour and salt and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll one-inch pieces of dough into balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten balls with the bottom of a glass dipped in flour. Press a pecan into the top of dough.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes until lightly colored. Serve! (ALSO READ Valentine’s Day 2018 Cocktail Recipes: How to Make Tanqueray Rose, Timeless Talisker And Ciroc Chocolate Kiss).

Magic Chocolate Flower (with brownie center and Crème Anglais)

Magic chocolate cake
Magic chocolate cake

Ingredients of chocolate flower:

100g (3.53 ounces) tempered chocolate per flower

Acetate paper sheets

Ingredient for brownie:

1 (15 ounce) can Hersheys Chocolate Syrup

1 cup all-purpose flour (Plus more for dusting)

1 cup sugar

1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder

1⁄2 cup butter

4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla

Ingredients for Crème Anglais:

5 egg yolks or 90g (3.17 ounces)

1/4 cup or 50g (1.76 ounces) sugar

1 cup or 250millilitres (8.45 fluid ounces) cream (35% fat)

1/2 cup or 125millilitres (4.23 fluid ounces) whole or full cream milk (4% fat)

1 vanilla bean

Method to make the brownie:

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter and sugar in a medium bowl with a portable mixer or a stand mixer.

Add eggs one at a time till incorporated. Add the chocolate syrup and vanilla. Turn off mixer and stir in the flour and baking powder by hand (it’s less messy this way).

Pour batter into a lightly greased and floured 9 inch spring-form pan and bake at 180 degree Celsius for 30 to 35 minutes.

Let it cool and then, release the cake from the pan.

Method for the chocolate flower:

Temper your chocolate (spreading the chocolate evenly to bring down the temperature to 28 to 30 degrees) and spread the chocolate thinly on some acetate.  Make a circular base for the flower. Put the disc into the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes to make it hard.

Now, spread the molten chocolate on another acetate paper to make petals. Using a knife and the petal template, cut out individual petals. Now, roll the acetate paper with the chocolate on the inside onto a cylinder to curve the petals. Use cello tape to keep it in place. Put it in the fridge.

Method to make Crème Anglais:

Scrape the vanilla bean and combine with the cream and milk in a saucepan and heat.

Whisk together sugar and the egg yolks.

Once the milk and vanilla mixture just starts to boil remove from the heat and pour into the egg yolk mixture whisking as you do.

Pour back into the saucepan and cook it until it is slightly thick. Keep it aside.

Assemble the dessert:

Take out the base from the fridge and place it in a bowl. Place a piece of brownie at the center of the base. Add whipped cream on top of the brownie and arrange a few pieces of strawberries on it. Now, take out the cylinder on which petals are rolled. Peel off the acetate paper slowly and un-mould the petals. Take the petals dip one side in molten chocolate and place it on the base chocolate disc to form a closed flower.

When you are ready to serve it, pour hot Crème Anglais on the side of the bowl and see the flower blooming.