Raspberry Jam Shortbread Hearts

 

January came and went in a flash without much baking on my part.  To be honest I was a bit burnt out from all the holiday baking I'd done and on top of that work was keeping me busy, but now I'm back and raring to go.   First up are these super tasty and cute Raspberry Jam Shortbread Hearts which are perfect for Valentine's Day.  The crispy, buttery shortbreads are filled with my homemade, tart raspberry jam and are utterly delicious.  They actually remind me of the British "Jammie Dodgers" biscuit.  

I used a heart shaped thumbprint cookie stamp I bought from Williams-Sonoma a few years ago.  The set also comes with a rectangle and circle shape and cuts and shapes the cookie dough perfectly.  You get professional looking results with little to no effort!

For the shortbread dough I tweaked my favorite clotted cream shortbread recipe.  Since I didn't have any fresh clotted cream I just replaced that amount in the recipe with the same amount of butter.  The dough is super forgiving and you can't really mess it up.  My main tip is to roll the dough to at least 1/4-inch thickness; any thinner and it will be harder to get the nice embossed design on the cookie. 

Gift these cookies to your loved ones for the tastiest Valentine. 

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Surprise-Inside Heart Cake

This was my first attempt at making a surprise-inside cake and I think it turned out okay.  I preface that by saying I'm a perfectionist so I'm always going to be my worst critic.  But while the cake does look pretty cool I would have liked the heart shape to come out with more distinct and sharp lines.  I'll save that for my second attempt I guess!

I was inspired to make this cake after seeing an Instagram video post by Baking With Blondie.  Between you and me I think I probably watched the video at least twenty times to learn how she put the cake together.  The cake was too cute not to try and replicate and Valentine's Day was the perfect occasion to practice.

For the cake I used Stella Parks's White Mountain Layer Cake and frosted it with her American Buttercream.  Normally I would use my favorite Swiss meringue buttercream but I'd been meaning to try her take on the American classic.  I baked the white cake layers using three 6-inch pans and for the pink cake filling I used a quarter sheet pan.

A bonus to making this surprise-inside cake was that it produced two additional treats using the leftover cake and icing.  I'll post them shortly so stay tuned!