It’s February! Which means we can talk frankly about Valentines Day. V-day has a few remarkable effects on society. The first is causing the male half of hetero relationships to wander wide-eyed around lingerie stores*, awkwardly picking up bits of lace and string and thinking bloody hard about what size to buy because if they choose a large and his wife’s a medium there will be hell to pay. *Note that this phenomenon takes place only once they’ve realized halfway through the 14th why they’ve been getting the stink eye – cold shoulder combo all day.

The second effect is making the single people exactly ten thousand times more likely to consume inordinate amounts of haagen dazs whilst binging on rom-coms and subsequently sobbing into their bubble bath.

The third effect is the widespread uncontrollable urge to make a thrillingly over-the-top chocolate dessert. I quite like this effect. My contribution to societal chocolate titillation is this: fudgy cake topped with vibrant raspberries. Dessert at its sexiest. First, you pack fresh (or thawed from frozen) raspberries into individual ramekins, and top them with a rich chocolate batter.

Then you bake them. This is where the magic happens. The raspberries and brown sugar melt into a luscious raspberry sauce that tops the cakes when turned over.

Serve warm. With a pile of softly whopped cream.

Is just me or is it gettin’ kinda hot in here *tugs collar*…

Chocolate Raspberry Upside-Down Cakes

If you love raspberry and chocolate together, my chewy raspberry cookies pair the two in cookie form.