Whether you are in the red, orange or yellow zone, you can always find the best way to celebrate special occasions that matter to you, especially Valentine’s Day, the dream occasion for those of us who are born romantic.
In this article, we will give you some ideas on how to spend Valentine’s Day, the 14th of February, which this year just happens to be on a Sunday, with or without your loved one, whether you are near or far from each other, everything is possible now with video calls on the popular Zoom app!
If you enjoy spending time cooking and want to find an alternative to classic chocolates, we suggest you make a chocolate fruitcake with a surprise heart inside. A recipe that even the famous Italian chef Carlo Cracco has added to his Valentine’s Day menu! In addition to bringing a smile to your loved one’s face, the basic ingredient is dark chocolate and, as we all know well, it is not only considered an aphrodisiac, but also has many beneficial properties including antidepressant properties. This is because dark chocolate contains tryptophan, a substance that stimulates the production of serotonin, also known as the good mood and happiness hormone!
So you don’t actually need to have a fiancé to brighten up your day: this recipe is suitable for all relationship statuses!
Here are the ingredients:
225 g pastry flour
25 g bitter cocoa powder
100 g potato starch
250 g creamy white yoghurt at room temperature
120 g melted butter
250 g sugar
4 eggs
1 sachet baking powder
1 orange peel
1 lemon peel
a dash of red food colouring
Now follow all the steps carefully:
Beat the eggs with the sugar and citrus peel for a few minutes until you have a light, soft and foamy mixture.
Add the melted butter, now cooled, a bit at a time and 225 g of yoghurt (leave 30 g aside).
Add the sifted flour, baking powder and starch to the mixture and mix well.
Place 5 full tablespoons of mixture into a bowl. Add a dash of food colouring (very little if you want a light pink colour, otherwise use more if you prefer the heart to be bright red).
Mix well until the colour is even.
Add the sifted cocoa and the remaining yoghurt to the rest of the mixture and mix well.
Place the pink dough on parchment paper, making sure it is about 1 cm thick.
Pre-heat the oven to 170 °C and bake for about 5 to 7 minutes.
Take it out of the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes.
Use a heart-shaped mould to cut out the little hearts once the dough has cooled.
When you are done cutting out all your little hearts, you can start making the fruitcake with a surprise heart inside:
Place a bit less than half of the dough into a well-buttered and floured fruitcake mould.
Place the little hearts right next to each other so that they are in the centre of the baking tray.
Gently and neatly cover all the little hearts with the rest of the dough.
Bake at 170 °C for about 40 to 45 minutes.
Take it out of the oven and leave to cool for half an hour in the mould, then place it on a plate and garnish as desired.
And for those of you who, like us, are true romantics, we suggest binge watching the best romantic films or you can start watching a TV series, but don’t forget to keep some of our must-have tissues right next to you!
Here is our list of films that we recommend you watch, which you can easily find on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, including great classics and the latest flicks:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Ghost (1990)
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
And, of course… the tear-jerker, Titanic! (1997)
Notting Hill (1999)
Love Me If You Dare (2003)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Revolutionary Road (2008)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Love and Other Drugs (2010)
Blue Valentine (2010)
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2014)
The Theory of Everything (2014)
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Her (2013)
La La Land (2016)
The Age of Adaline (2015)
Allied (2016)
Loving (2016)
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Disobedience (2017)
Baby Driver (2017)
A Star is Born (2018)
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You(2020)
And what about a gift for your other half?!
On this special occasion, we have decided to give away a Marta La Farfalla Wood fragrance to the first 24 people who will place an order on our e-commerce website www.martalafarfalla.it after 1 pm today. In other words: buy anything you like for yourself and you will receive a free car freshener for your “Valentine”!
A few tips on how to spend Valentine’s Day in these times of “different coloured” zones.
Whether you are in the red, orange or yellow zone, you can always find the best way to celebrate special occasions that matter to you, especially Valentine’s Day, the dream occasion for those of us who are born romantic.
In this article, we will give you some ideas on how to spend Valentine’s Day, the 14th of February, which this year just happens to be on a Sunday, with or without your loved one, whether you are near or far from each other, everything is possible now with video calls on the popular Zoom app!
If you enjoy spending time cooking and want to find an alternative to classic chocolates, we suggest you make a chocolate fruitcake with a surprise heart inside. A recipe that even the famous Italian chef Carlo Cracco has added to his Valentine’s Day menu! In addition to bringing a smile to your loved one’s face, the basic ingredient is dark chocolate and, as we all know well, it is not only considered an aphrodisiac, but also has many beneficial properties including antidepressant properties. This is because dark chocolate contains tryptophan, a substance that stimulates the production of serotonin, also known as the good mood and happiness hormone!
So you don’t actually need to have a fiancé to brighten up your day: this recipe is suitable for all relationship statuses!
Here are the ingredients:
Now follow all the steps carefully:
When you are done cutting out all your little hearts, you can start making the fruitcake with a surprise heart inside:
While making your fruitcake, you can listen to our “All you need is Love” playlist on our Spotify channel with the best love songs, for an incredibly romantic atmosphere!
And for those of you who, like us, are true romantics, we suggest binge watching the best romantic films or you can start watching a TV series, but don’t forget to keep some of our must-have tissues right next to you!
Here is our list of films that we recommend you watch, which you can easily find on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, including great classics and the latest flicks:
And what about a gift for your other half?!
On this special occasion, we have decided to give away a Marta La Farfalla Wood fragrance to the first 24 people who will place an order on our e-commerce website www.martalafarfalla.it after 1 pm today. In other words: buy anything you like for yourself and you will receive a free car freshener for your “Valentine”!