A Luxembourg classic reinterpreted for Valentine’s Day

This simple layered dessert made from biscuits and chocolate buttercream is still often prepared at home today and is an essential part of many family recipes.
For Valentine’s Day, the traditional cake is reinterpreted here in the shape of a heart, finished with an especially smooth and chocolatey buttercream.

Ingredients

Chocolate buttercream

• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 175 g sugar
• 400 g butter (room temperature)
• 30–40 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• approx. 100 g dark chocolate, melted

For the layers

• approx. 80–100 Petit Beurre biscuits
• approx. 200–300 ml milk (as needed)

Optional for decoration

• Crushed biscuits
• Strawberries dipped in dark chocolate
• White chocolate, for drizzling

Preparation

Chocolate buttercream

Whisk the eggs and sugar over a bain-marie (water bath) for about 10 minutes, until the mixture becomes light in colour, warm and slightly thickened.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely to room temperature.

Briefly beat the butter until creamy, ideally using a hand mixer.

Important: the butter and the egg-sugar mixture must be at the same temperature, otherwise the buttercream may split.

Gradually whisk the egg-sugar mixture into the butter using a whisk.

This step requires a bit of patience, but it gives the best result and creates a particularly fine and stable buttercream.
Alternatively, you can briefly use a hand mixer on a very low speed, but only carefully.

Mix the cocoa powder with the melted dark chocolate.

Then fold it into the buttercream.

This makes the cream especially smooth and intensely chocolatey.

cake

Assembling the cake

As a base, it is best to use a serving platter, as the cake can be presented directly on it later. Dip each biscuit completely but very briefly into the milk. They should be evenly moistened but not soaked.

For a square base, place 3 × 4 biscuits side by side on the platter for each layer.

Spread a thin, even layer of buttercream on top.

Continue layering biscuit by biscuit, alternating with buttercream, until the desired height is reached.

At this point, there are two options:

1. Classic version:
Smooth the cake all over with buttercream and chill.

2. Heart shape (e.g. for Valentine’s Day):
First, let the cake set overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day, draw a heart shape on top with a knife, then cut it out using a large, sharp knife. Tip: regularly dip the knife into very warm water – this helps to cut cleanly through the cold layers.

Remove the remaining buttercream from the fridge in good time (about 1–2 hours beforehand) so it becomes spreadable again. Cover the cut edges with buttercream and chill for another 1–2 hours until firm.

Decoration

The Kalen Hond can be decorated entirely to taste.

For Valentine’s Day, strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, crushed biscuits or a fine drizzle of white chocolate work particularly well.

In general, decorate as you like.

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