Ahhh, February, the month of lovers. Valentines Day, that one day a year dedicated to lovers everywhere. Traditionally this is a day we like to spoil our loved ones with a special meal and other goodies. Everywhere you look the shops are filled with flowers, heart shaped boxes of candies and the like, just waiting for people to decide in what way they are going to show their chosen sweetheart how much they love them..
I don't have a sweetheart to spoil this year, but I can tell you that Valentine's Day has always been a really special day for me. As a child I loved cutting and gluing all of my paper Valentines and their envelopes together, ready to gift my special friends at school.
We used to get those books of valentines and each would laboriously be cut out along with their matching envelopes. Half the fun of these Valentine books would be getting them ready. There was always a special one to gift your teacher with included.
We would have also made special boxes and envelopes at home to be used at school to collect any Valentines gifted to us by others in the class. Some years there would even be a contest for who would have the most beautifully decorated Valentine box.
I remember winning the prize one year. My mother had helped me to make a beautiful box out of an old square cardboard box. It was covered in white crepe paper with a white crepe paper ruffle all the way around the outside as well as a red ribbon. It was meant to look like a cake.
The top was decorated with small red paper hearts with white writing on them. Words saying things that were always on those candy hearts we used to get. Saying things like "I LUV YOU" "BE TRUE" "HUG ME" "BE MINE" and "YOU R CUTE." I remember thinking it was the cutest box ever and my teacher must have agreed with me because it won the prize.
I never really saw my mother as being very creative but I think I was very wrong in thinking that. She may not have drawn or painted, but she was always knitting mittens, sewing clothes for us, doing fancy embroidery on tea towels, dresser scarves, pillows and the like.
I think she was a lot more creative than we gave her credit for being. Thank you mom! I wish I had been more vocal about my thanks and appreciation at the time. Now she is in heaven it is too late, but I am fairly confident she always knew how much I appreciated her anyways.
These Berry Custard Cakes make the perfect Dessert for a celebratory Valentines Day dinner for either your sweetheart or your family. They are baked in individual ramekins.
If you have heart shaped ones that would be lovely. I don't however, so need to use round ones. Their presentation will be lovely anyways, no matter the shape of the ramekin.
They are also very easy to make, and can definitely be made ahead of time. You can make them up to a day or two in advance, keeping them covered in the refrigerator, ready to slip onto serving dishes when needed.
You begin by putting a spoonful of fruit jam in the bottom of each ramekin and topping it with some berries, fresh or frozen. I have used raspberry jam and mixed summer berres for these, including raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
These are then topped with cubed pound cake and an egg custard is poured over top before baking in a Bain Marie. (Fancy name for a roasting tin filled with hot water.) The ramekins are put in, hot water poured around them and then they are baked in the oven until they set.
Once baked and tipped out of the ramekins you have beautiful little dessert cakes, composed of tart/sweet and sticky berries with a type of bread/cake pudding on top, all encased in a rich custard. Ready to be dusted with some icing sugar like a frilly petticoat.
Served with a fruit coulis, some chocolate sauce or warmed sieved fruit jam, these always make for a beautiful presentation and are incredibly delicious to boot. In short, a winner/winner of a Valentines Celebration Dessert!
Berry Custard Cakes
Ingredients
- 2 TBS raspberry preserves
- 2 cups (300g) of assorted berries
- 1 cup (60g) of pound cake, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (madiera cake)
- 2 1/4 cups (500ml) of evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed) (can also use light cream or half and half)
- 1/2 cup (95g) of white sugar
- 2 large free range eggs
- 2 large free range egg yolks
- 2 tsp vanilla
- Icing sugar for dusting
- raspberry coulis, chocolate sauce, or warmed and sieved raspberry jam
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter 6 (4 to 6 ounce) ramekins. Place 1 tsp of preserves into the bottom of each ramekin. Divide the berries amongst the ramekins. Top each with an equal portion of cake cubes. Set aside.
- Whisk together the evaporated milk (cream or half and half), eggs, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla. Divide equally amongst the ramekins, pouring it in over top of the cake cubes.
- Place each ramekin into a shallow roasting pan. Place the roasting pan on a rack in the oven and fill with boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
- Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until set and golden brown.
- Run a sharp knife around the insides of each ramekin to loosen cakes and tip out, then tip back right side up onto 6 dessert plates.
- Dust with icing sugar and serve warm with your desired sauce. Delicious!
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