Rich Chocolate Mini-Cakes

This is a great idea for Valentine's Day.  Chocolate goodness.

It is a super light cake with a chocolate glaze on top.


Instead of white drizzle on top, I went with chocolate in every detail.

Simply irresistible on a vintage cake stand.

Variations:
--put the batter in a small muffin tin and it will make little bon-bon size
--double the recipe and bake it in a sheet cake pan, then use heart cookie cutters to cut out larger heart shapes.
--I baked mine in a regular muffin tin and made the shapes by cutting each muffin with a knife into the desired shape.  I cut some of the hearts in horizontally in-half because they were puffy and could make two.  You could also just use the regular cupcake size and drizzle heart shapes onto the circle to save time.

Recipe from Hershey's Recipe Collection
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

1. heat oven to 350.  Lightly grease whatever pan or tin you will put them in.
2. Stir together dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients; stir until smooth.  Batter will be thin.  Spoon batter into prepared cups or pan.
3. Bake 12-14 minutes.  You'll need to watch the time according to whichever pan you use.  Check them after 10 minutes and adjust accordingly.  Cool in pan for 3 min, then invert onto racks.  Cool completely.
4. Dip rounded portion into glaze or spread glaze on tops.  Place on wax paper.  After glaze is set, drizzle white or brown chocolate on top.

Chocolate Glaze
Melt 2 tablespoons butter or margarine in saucepan over low heat; add 2 tbls cocoa and 2 tbls water until smooth and slightly thickened; do not boil.  Remove from heat; cool slightly.  Gradually blend in 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract; stir or beat until smooth.  Mine actually required adding a little bit more water to achieve the glaze consistency.

Drizzle
Using almond or chocolate bark, follow directions on package for melting.  Place in a little zip-loc bag once melted.  Squeeze it to the bottom and zip it.  Then with scissors, cut a teeny-tiny whole in the end and drizzle or decorate desired pattern.