I received product from Dixie Crystals and OXO in my participation of the Good Cookie Food Bloggers Valentine's Event! My opinions are my own. There are affiliate links in this post. I get commissions for purchases made through these types of links in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

I know these look like chocolate brownies that are heart shapes. But they are more than that! From Ina Garten's Modern Comfort Food cookbook, this is her bittersweet chocolate cake recipe but I modified it so it would fit using this heart shaped silicone baking pan!

This mini heart shape chocolate cake is soooo good! It's like a fudgy chocolate cake and I love that there's instant espresso powder in it…it balances out the chocolate and the sweetness. Which means, it's not too rich and you can eat more than one!

If you want to, that is!

I’m so excited to organize in this Valentine’s event again! This is the fifth year for our event and we want to continue to make a difference in the fight against pediatric cancer.

Cancer is the #1 cause of death of children by disease in the U.S. There are 40,000 U.S. children actively battling cancer right now. The National Cancer Institute’s budget for childhood cancer is less than 4%. It’s such a small number and that’s why I got involved.

And with the ongoing pandemic, children are still being diagnosed with cancer. It’s imperative that we raise awareness and continue to raise funds to fund the ongoing pediatric cancer research!

Thank you to so many of you who have already donated, please help us reach our goal so we can get the full matching donations and help us make an even huge difference!

Are Heart Shaped Chocolate Cakes easy to make?

Making a heart shaped chocolate cake is super easy to make! You just need seven ingredients and a good heart shaped silicone baking pan. I outline the steps on how to make this chocolate cake below!

What kind of pan should I use to make a heart shape chocolate cake?

I used this one to make little mini heart shaped chocolate cakes! It's really easy to use!

Heart Shaped Chocolate Cake Ingredients

To make heart shaped chocolate cakes, you only need 7 ingredients. The last two ingredients are optional!

• unsalted butter
• bittersweet chocolate
• granulated sugar
• eggs
• instant espresso powder
• salt
• unbleached all-purpose flour
• Vanilla ice cream (optional)
• Sprinkles (optional)

How to Make Heart Shape Chocolate Cake

Huge thanks again to OXO and Dixie Crystals for being matching donor sponsors and sending me goodies to make this recipe!

Spray your silicone baking pan with baking spray. I'm baking mine on this on my OXO baking sheet and mat!

Place a large heatproof glass bowl over a simmering pot of water.

Add butter and chocolate to the bowl.

Stir the chocolate, until it melts. Remove the bowl and set aside.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, add sugar to it. Pour in the melted chocolate mixture.

Whisk sugar into the chocolate.

Whisk sugar into the chocolate.

Add the espresso powder and salt and whisk until the batter is smooth.

Add the flour.

Fold in with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter evenly into each heart in the baking pan. (I used a cookie scoop!)

Place on a baking sheet with an OXO baking mat or covered in foil.

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes. Place baking pan on a cooling rack for 3 to 5 minutes.

Place baking pan on a cooling rack for 3 to 5 minutes.

Carefully flip the pan over and pick up the pan, the heart shaped chocolate cakes should come out easily. 

Serve the heart shaped chocolate cake warm with vanilla ice cream and sprinkles.

Your family will LOVE these little cakes. My husband called them little brownies. I beg to differ, they are like a little fudgy cake. You can even eat them with your hands if you don't want to eat them with ice cream!

Enjoy your Valentine's Day and be sure to tell your loved ones you love them EVERY DAY!

Be sure to store them in a sealed container once they cool so they stay soft!

Recipe modified from Ina Garten's Modern Comfort Food cookbook.

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Heart Shaped Chocolate Cake

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 1/2 cup Dixie Crystals granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• Vanilla ice cream for topping
• Sprinkles for topping

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray your heart shaped silicone baking pan with baking spray.
• Place a large heatproof glass bowl over a simmering pot of water (the water should not tough the bowl). Add butter and chocolate to the bowl. Stir the chocolate, until it melts. Remove the bowl and set aside.
• In a medium sized mixing bowl, add sugar to it. Pour in the melted chocolate mixture. Whisk sugar into the chocolate. Then, add eggs and whisk. Add the espresso powder and salt and whisk until the batter is smooth.
• Add the flour and fold in with a rubber spatula.
• Pour the batter evenly into each heart in the baking pan. Place on a baking sheet with an OXO baking mat or covered in foil. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes. (The cake shouldn’t wobble or jiggle when it’s done baking.)
• Place baking pan on a cooling rack for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Place a piece of parchment paper on the cooling rack and put on top of the pan. Carefully flip the pan over and pick up the pan, the heart shaped chocolate cakes should come out easily. 
• Serve cakes topped with vanilla ice cream and sprinkles.

Notes

I love to serve these little heart shaped chocolate cakes warm. Before storing them in a sealed container, be sure to let them cool completely. You can warm them back up in the microwave for 15 to 30 seconds (but do this in 10 to 15 second increments to make sure they don't burn).

Pin It for Later

Be sure to visit the other bloggers participating in the Valentine’s Day event and check out their recipes!

The post Heart Shaped Chocolate Cake appeared first on The Little Kitchen.

Ahh cookies! Lindsay says today, is the day we take over the internet with tons of cookies. For the last couple of weeks, food bloggers from all over the world have been baking, testing and retesting and then shipping their cookies to fellow food bloggers. It's been exciting for us to watch all of the posts. And even more exciting that we're able to announce that we also raised $13,778.40 for Cookies for Kids' Cancer!!!

Lindsay and I started the cookie swap, three years ago to receive cookies in the mail from other bloggers and of course taste them. When we partnered with Cookies for Kids' Cancer last year, we raised over $4,400 and that brings the grand total to over $18,000 in total raised for C4KC because of a little thing, our cookie swap. Thanks to ALL of the bloggers who joined and huge props go out to our sponsors who matched donations, without them, we would never have made it above our goal of raising over $10,000 this year…a huge huge thank you to Dixie Crystals, Gold Medal Flour and Grandma's Molasses and OXO.

Other numbers: we had 622 participants from all over the world with everyone sending 3 dozen cookies out, that's 22,392 cookies. Can you imagine that many cookies being shipped across the country here and in other countries around the world? Wow, just wow. Every year, I'm amazed at how many people sign up and the sheer number of cookies being baked and shipped!

So true, so true isn't it? My friends are extremely important to me. They keep me grounded and they keep me sane. I'm incredibly fortunate to have an amazing and diverse group of friends. The support I get from my friends, I'll be eternally grateful for. A few days ago, was the 4 year anniversary of my starting this little food blog. And never in a million years (oh I repeat myself so many times) did I ever think or dream that I would make the best friends of my life through this food blog.

One of those people is Lindsay. My partner in crime…I actually instagrammed a picture of us (or was it a tweet?) and called her my partner (oops, haha). No one caught it though. She makes me laugh and she calms me down when I'm having a crazy day and she's the one who tweeted out three years ago, wouldn't it be great to actually taste another bloggers cookie recipe…we should really do a cookie swap. I tweeted back and the rest is all history.

I'm getting all weepy looking back on four years, my life is so much fuller and richer because of all of you, my friends. So thank you so much for being the chocolate chips in my life.

PS Be sure to check out Lindsay's cookies…they are amazing! I didn't share one cookie with anyone!

For us, it started out as being all about the cookies and now it's become so much more than that. Did you know that:

• 1 in 300 children will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they're 20 years old.
• There are 12 major types of pediatric cancer, each as unique as the child fighting it.
• Less than 4% of the National Cancer Institute's budget goes towards pediatric cancers.

The amazing fundraising efforts that Cookies for Kids' Cancer has is nothing short of extraordinary but at the same ordinary because it's through grassroots efforts like our Food Blogger Cookie Swap and bake sales around the country that they were able to grant out $1.5 million this year and in a few short years about $5 million to pediatric cancer centers as well as support pediatric cancer research. To find out more on how you can get involved, please visit Cookies for Kids' Cancer.

You have been waiting patiently to hear about the cookies, thanks for bearing with me. I always get ALL of my ingredients out first…and these are the essentials besides the cream cheese and butter of course.

Lindsay and I had these amazing bittersweet chocolate chunk cookies with sea salt at Saint Cupcake in Portland a month ago. I wanted to try my hand at making a similar recipe and after a bunch of tries and using my friend Kelly's secret ingredient for chocolate chip cookies, cream cheese. I hit the jackpot.

Be careful to not overmix the cookie dough when you're mixing in the flour and the chocolate chunks. I used two different kinds, bittersweet (Ghiradelli — btw, I can never spell that name, I always have to look it up!) and semisweet (Nestle).

Use a handy dandy cookie scoop, scoop out portions of the cookie dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. And arrange like below:

No, you're not going to bake them like this, you're going to freeze or refrigerated them like this (very close together) and when you're ready to bake them, you'll want to place the cookie dough 2 to 3 inches apart.

Cookies, cookies, cookies! I'm saying this to you in my cookie monster voice. I literally feel like him sometimes. After dinner, watching tv, scrolling through my Instagram feed, I get cookie cravings. Because of these cravings, I always have cookie dough in my freezer now. Often times, I'll make two batches or only need a half batch, instead of baking all of the cookies at once, I'll freeze the dough and put it in zippered plastic bags in the freezer labeled with the date and baking temperature and time.

The cookies I'm sharing with you today are the ones I sent, the ones I received…I photographed when I got them in the mail.

I received from Lindsay Bourbon Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Shortbread cookies. And chocolate snickers cookies from another Lindsay! Nom nom!

And I also received butter cookies from Sara (it's her grandma's recipe!) and some eggnog dark chocolate chip cookies from Melissa. I enjoyed all of the cookies. I made a lot of crumbs too.

I sent cookies to Mackenzie, Christine and Kimberly. I haven't heard back from all of them but I hope they all enjoyed the cookies!

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Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Sea Salt Recipe

The inspiration for this recipe came from these bittersweet chocolate chunk cookies with sea salt that I had at Saint Cupcake in Portland, Oregon on a recent trip. While these aren’t exactly like those cookies, I do use the same kind of sea salt the famed cupcake store does, from Jacobsen Salt Co.

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 48 to 50 1.5 Tablespoon cookies OR 24 to 25 3 Tablespoon cookies

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter two sticks, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate roughly chopped
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks
• sea salt

Instructions

• Mix dry ingredients together in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer (and using a flat beater) or large mixing bowl (and using an electric mixer), beat cream cheese cheese and butter. Add both sugars and cream together thoroughly. Add vanilla extract and mix. Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly until combined.
• Add flour in two batches and mix with a rubber spatula. Add chocolate and mix just to combine. Don’t over mix.
• Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper and using a medium (1.5 Tablespoon) cookie scoop, scoop cookie dough portions. Place portioned cookie dough into the freezer for 3 to 4 hours or overnight. If not baking immediately, after the dough is frozen, place in one or more zippered plastic bags and label with date and baking temperature and time.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees and place cookie dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet at least 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake for 9 to 12 minutes until slightly golden brown. Remove from oven and place parchment paper with cookies on top directly on a cooling rack. Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch or two of sea salt immediately after they come out of the oven. Store in an airtight container to maintain chewiness.

One more thing, we're so excited and honored to be featured in the current issue of the FoodieCrush digital magazine. Check it out, Lindsay and I are in a magazine! It's beautiful and I hope you'll check it out. You can download it and read it on your smartphone or tablet too!

There are affiliate links in this post.

The post Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Sea Salt appeared first on The Little Kitchen.