Fluffy the Fluffy's Romantic Valentine's Dinner

Hi friends!

Wow, it HAS been a while, but like my friend Jeremy likes to point out, I am a very lazy bear.

ANYWAY......ignoring the great big time lapse, let's get right into it and talk about Valentine's Day - aka International Chocolate Day. You may not all know this, but I have a very special BF. Her name is Fluffy the Fluffy and she lives in twitterland. She's my BF (Bunny Friend) and I'm her BF (Bear Friend). It's a long distance relationship, but hey, that works just fine. Isn't she purty?!

So for Valentine's this year, I made Fluffy a very romantic dinner. And wouldn't you know it - STOOPID TWITTA ate most of it and poor Fluffy didn't even get to see her dessert. So here it is again, in detail, with even a recipe thrown in.....so Fluffy can enjoy it...and to show the rest of you guys how it's done. 'Cause you all know I'm such a modest bear, right?

It was a very busy day in the kitchen. There was the mixing of ice-cream...... 

.....melting of chocolate......

....beating of eggs......

....pureeing of raspberries.....

...and most importantly, the building of mold towers!!

I had to be careful with the potato chips (being flammable and everything!), lucky for long-handled implements!

Dinner was Veal Parmigiana served with home-made potato chips and rocket salad (yeah, I know - green stuff - yuck! But Fluffy's a RABBIT!!).........and set in a very romantic place - the grounds of Hogwart's!

For dessert, we had Chocolate Fondant (aka Lava Cayk) with Cappuccino Ice-Cream, Whipped Cream and Raspberry Coulis. Doesn't it look just nommy!!?

Here's what the fondant looks like inside.....

Perfect!! I was very proud of myself as I'd never made one before :)

And here is the recipe for the Chocolate Fondant - or, as we bears call it when we're not trying to be la-dee-da - Chocolate Lava Cayk!

Thanks to the TASTE website!

Ingredients:

• 85g caster sugar
• 150g butter, chopped
• 150g 70% cocoa dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• Double cream and strawberries to serve

Method:

1. 1
   Grease and line four small pudding moulds with baking paper.
2. 2
   Whisk together egg yolks and eggs and set aside.
3. 3
   Place sugar, butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place over simmering water stirring until all ingredients are melted.
4. 4
   Remove from heat and whisk for a moment to ensure no lumps or grains.
5. 5
   Add a small amount of the egg mixture and whisk vigorously until combined, repeat adding small amounts of the egg mixture and whisking until all combined and the mixture has a glossy smooth texture.
6. 6
   Fold in flour.
7. 7
   Pour into moulds and set aside in fridge for a couple of hours or until chocolate mix is set.
8. 8
   Preheat oven to 180c.
9. 9
   Arrange moulds on baking tray and bake in oven for 16 minutes.
10. 10
    Ensure that fondants appear cooked on top, but do not allow overcooking.
11. 11
    Take out of oven and let stand two minutes before turning onto serving plate. Ensure that you are gentle when removing baking paper as with the soft centre the fondants are quite fragile.

Now there's just one thing left to do.......nom nom nom!

Bill xx