4 Chocolate Valentines for the Ones You Love

A toast to the innocent notion that love can be contained: The World’s Best Chocolate Cupcake… A slide into the silky fire of senseless abandon: Chili-Fired Bittersweet Chocolate Pots de Crème… An ode to building a life, layer by layer: Thousand-Layer Cake… And to the other loves, bother, sister, mother, and baby love, best-girlfriend and old boyfriend love, the elderly woman next door, the memory of loss along the way. All the loves that can’t be explained and won’t go away, those sentimental valentines, a funky, nostalgic Red Velvet Cake.

Josie Rae-Tomlinson’s Superior Cupcakes
Los Angeles, California

(Adapted from “One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking”)

Fifteen-year-old Josie Rae-Tomlinson began baking nearly a decade ago. Her confections astounded her elders and ignited talk of Beethoven’s earliest symphonies. Ms. Rae-Tomlinson was not impressed. She was born to bake. Now a student at Emma Willard Academy, she bakes for her housemates, her friends back home, and toward the idea of first love. First love after cupcake love, that is—first human love.

For the cupcakes:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled until warm, not hot
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the vanilla icing:

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar (see note in Step 4)
• 1/2 cup milk (preferably nonfat, but any kind will do)
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• food coloring (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line two 12-cup cupcake tins with cupcake papers. Sift the flour and baking soda together into a small bowl.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not over-beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.

3. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake tins, filling the cups about three-quarters full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, make the icing by placing the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar, then the milk and vanilla. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until smooth and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes. If you are adding more sugar, now is the time to do that. If you want to make your icing more festive, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly.

5. To ice the cupcakes, remove them from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack. Use a spatula or knife to apply icing to suit. Some, like me, want nothing more than a “schmear”; others like to add more confectioner’s sugar and create a high bonnet of icing.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Spiced Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème
Provincetown, Massachusetts

Jeff Houston was a pastry chef who worked with me for the decade that I ran restaurants. He created this version of his famed bittersweet-chocolate pots de crème shortly before his death, in 1981.

• 1 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon finely ground espresso beans
• 2 cinnamon sticks, cut in half, or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• whipped cream, crème fraîche, or mascarpone cheese, for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Place 6 4-ounce ramekins or espresso cups in a baking dish and set aside. Combine the cream, milk, espresso, cinnamon, and cayenne in a heavy-bottomed pot over low heat, bring to a boil. Whisk in the chocolates until smooth, cover, remove from heat, and set aside for 30 minutes. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer and return to low heat.

2. Combine the egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine and thicken. When the chocolate mixture is simmering, remove it from heat and begin to add the chocolate mixture to the egg-yolk mixture a tiny bit at a time, whisking constantly. Strain the mixture through the fine mesh strainer into a pitcher.

3. Carefully divide the mixture between the ramekins and place each in the baking pan. Carefully add very hot water to the pan to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the baking pan with foil, place in the oven, and bake until the edges are firm but the custard jiggles at the center, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven, remove from water bath, and cool the custard on racks to room temperate. Refrigerate for three hours and serve with lightly sweetened heavy cream, crème fraîche, or mascarpone.

Serves 6

Carolyn Margolis’s Thousand-Layer Cake
Washington, D.C.

There may not actually be a thousand layers in this cake, but chances are, no one is counting. With marshmallow cream between layers of delicious génoise, the cake is an instant crowd pleaser and has won bids at local wine and food auctions . It’s the grand finale at the Margolises just about every Thanksgiving. The original recipe, from Ms. Margolis’s grandmother—who included it in a handwritten cookbook she gave each of her three daughters—required eight 8-inch layer-cake pans. Now Ms. Margolis bakes four layers and slices them in half. “It’s faster,” she says.

For the cake:

• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the filling:

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• One 16-ounce jar marshmallow cream (preferably Marshmallow Fluff)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

For the icing:

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, or more as needed
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, or more as needed

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease four 8-inch round cake pans.

2. To make the cake: Beat the egg whites until stiff, slowly adding the sugar. Add the yolks one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the flour and vanilla.

3. Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake about 20 minutes, until the cakes pull away from the sides of the pans. Check the layers with a cake tester, which should come out clean.

4. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then turn out of the pans and cool completely on wire racks.

5. To make the filling: In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix the butter, marshmallow cream, and cocoa powder.

6. To make the icing: Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Remove from the heat and beat in 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and 1/2 cup cream. The mixture should resemble mayonnaise; add confectioner’s sugar and cream as needed to get the right consistency.

7. Cut each layer in half horizontally. Divide and spread the filling over each of seven layers. Stack them and top with the eighth layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the icing. The cake is best when fresh, but can be refrigerated.

Serves many

Tayari Jones’s Red Velvet Cake
Atlanta, Georgia

Author Tayari Jones grew up in Atlanta and adores red velvet cake. The cake features prominently in her second novel, “The Untelling.” She serves it at her readings and book signings and bakes it for friends. She says it is a truly Southern dessert: “The equivalent of wearing crinolines under your skirt. It’s a symbol of what it means to be a Southern woman. But it is also a great equalizer—white Southerners and black Southerners have equal claim to it. Yes, there’s red dye in it, but so what? One of my friends complained about the amount in my mama’s recipe—it calls for 1 1/2 ounces. That’s about a bottle and a half. To make the cake taste right (let alone look right), you’re going to have to use the coloring. If you remove that much liquid from your cake, it’s going to be dry. And it’s going to look stupid. If you’re afraid of red food color, make another cake.”

For the cake:

• 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons (1 1/3 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) red food coloring
• 1 cup buttermilk

For the cream cheese frosting:

• 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons (1 1/3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line bottom of three 8-inch round baking pans with waxed or parchment paper. Grease the sides of the pans.

2. To make the cake: Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.

3. Combine the butter or margarine and vegetable oil using an electric mixer. Add the sugar and cream until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vinegar and vanilla and mix until fluffy. Stir in the food coloring.

4. Fold in the flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk.

5. Divide the batter evenly among the three pans. Bake about 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean (a few crumbs are OK).

6. Cool briefly in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool to room temperature.

7. To make the frosting: Cream the butter and cream cheese, using an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix well, then stir in confectioners’ sugar on low speed. Mix until creamy and smooth.

8. Assemble cake with frosting between the layers and on the sides and top. Sprinkle the top with chopped pecans.

Serves many