This year’s take on the Chocolate, Red Wine, and Roses theme- aka, every girls favorite indulgence for valentines days, a concept that I like to muse with on this date driven day.  Dinner for two, with all the decadence that cupid’s charm can provide.  Here, you get all those pesky whimsical factors in one delectable plate.

The Red Wine Velvet Cake- flavored and colored with a robust red wine, cut cleverly into 3 parts rhetorically inquiring how good you are at sharing, this chocolate laden cake is topped with candied cocoa nibs for added texture.

This light cake is embellished with red wine pearls,  enhancing the taste and mouth feel of sipping on a glass of your favorite red wine.

To highlight the natural dark fruit flavors and robust floral note in red wine, I added red rose petals and pomegranate juice.  The delicate wine pearls are marinated in a red rose petal and pomegranate glaze.

Light candied almonds are added to highlight the nuttiness in chocolate, to add a very subtle caramel note, to enhance the almond tasting notes found in wine.

Lastly, this red wine velvet cake is carried by a lightly toasted white chocolate mousse.

Eat your visceral hearts out.