'Another cake, does this guy do anything but bake?'

That's what you're thinking, huh?

Me too...

But it's Valentine's Day and the heart shaped slab of brisket just didn't have the same banner appeal (although I was dying to use the line, 'Beef up your love life'!)

I promise there is a sexy, savoury dish to serve up to your Valentine somewhere in this newsletter...

But first, you have to indulge my red-velvet cake fetish.

Meet Diablo, the red devil who just might steal your honey's heart!

I have a fetish with red velvet cake.

I can say it.

Biting through rich cream cheese frosting into chocolate cake stained a post-apocalyptic shade of red. What's not to love?

I am guilty of going to Philips BBQ (the best in LA), resisting the spicy, smoky BBQ aroma and ordering 2 slices of red velvet cake (to go!).

It is a given that I am going to polish one slice off on the drive home.

Precisely how and when this devilish confection escaped from a vintage trailer park oven-ette, I have no idea.

Searching and weighing all the recipes that I could find on the web, I never succeeded in creating anything near velvety enough.

In fact, all I had accomplished to date were a few very toxic looking trifles!

Most recipes call for shortening or oil over butter and all-purpose (plain) flour with baking soda over self raising flour. I always bake with butter and self raising flour (I'm lousy at math, so the flour:baking powder ratio always befuddles me, and I can never be bothered sifting, so self-raising is the way to go)...but I didn't want to deny myself the science- experiment thrill of the vinegar and baking soda and I suspected that the oil held some secret to the velvety crumb of this cake.

So I compromised. half butter / half oil. half SR flour / half plain flour. A few more tweaks and I was ready to go. I got hyperactive just pouring the food colour into the batter...

...poured it all into some feisty red silicone heart- shaped pans from Crate & Barrel, and I was minutes away from a diabolical treat.

For a love-conquers-all T.K.O, I decided to squeeze in a layer of molten chocolate cake as well and then sandwich it all together with cream cheese frosting and raspberries.

I have a love-hate relationship with cream cheese frosting. It is so often over-whipped until it reaches a dry, starchy-ness that recalls your aunt's lace tablecloths...you know; the ones that leave a blood- red tattoo on your elbows for a week.

By adding a little yoghurt into mine, I achieved that smooth-lava flow; about-to-topple-over-the-sides- any-second-but-somehow-never-does consistency. Lusciously lickable to the last slice.

In fact, I poured the leftovers into the bowl of cherries and raspberries and had a little frosting-gasm.

Jaws drop when folks make my molten chocolate cake for the first time. They cannot believe how simple it is.

I can take no credit; this recipe was given to me by a former flat mate, but I have made it so often now that it calls me 'papa'.

Anyway, I had leftover batter after I'd made the layer for Diablo, so I poured the rest into cup-cake and small heart shaped pans.

Made a ganache by simmering some dried cherries in port until they'd absorbed it all, added some mexican drinking chocolate (it's flavoured with cinnamon) and then some cream.

Sweet, sharp, spicy, naughty, perfect.

Dipped the cakes in the ganache and rolled the sides in crushed pecans.

Served the cakes (Diablo, Lash and all of their lesser devils) on a single platter and scattered fresh, dark cherries all over.

Now a platter of this nature could incite an orgy at a dinner party. A scaled down version would be just the ticket for a Valentine's dessert. Run a finger through the frosting; feed each other torn chunks of cake, bite and nibble each other's cherries...

...just make sure the blinds are drawn!

Did you know that more couples break up on Valentine's Day than any other day in the year?

Such expectation and torture, for couples and singles alike! It really is rather silly, isn't it?

Why should one little number on the calendar be a means of validating either your relationship or your self worth?

Anything that you do for Valentine's Day should be something that you do whenever you sit down to share a meal:

* turn off the cell phones

*light the candles

*cue some music or rent your favourite movie

*set place settings (whether you eat at the table or off the ottoman by the sofa)

* grab a sharpie or marker and scribble down the last 5 things they did which made you laugh onto their napkin (before they sit down to eat, you duffer!)

* don't laugh at them when the ink on their napkin gives them a Groucho Marx moustache!

here's a playlist that is lush, esoteric and worldly

hmm; sounds like my date!

This is a sexy hodge podge that I threw together the other night.

It's sort of two or three of my standard recipes all put together on a platter.

somebody call Salome!

This is a platter that she would have danced all night for...and left poor John joined at the neck!

Jumbo pasta shells stuffed with pumpkin and bacon, reeking of truffles and parmesan...hot roasted vegetables and crisp roses of pancetta all served over a bed of arugula.

It comes together in the time that it takes to cook the pasta.

honest!

if you don't believe me, then click on the link below and check it out.

Wait until you hear what Seamus Lopez has been up to.

My Riverdancing, Mariahci loving friend is in love and in trouble!

But you'll just have to wait for the next issue of 'bit' to find out.

Thanks for joining.

The response has been terrific, and it's great to have so much interest from back home in my antics over here.

I hope that you all enjoyed getting 'bit'!

thanks,

and let the love flow!

Mannix

mannix@thelovebite.com