So, I ain’t a big ‘Valentines Day’ guy………..it’s not that I don’t get the idea, I do….I just don’t agree with it. I don’t see why a greetings card company dictates that on a specific day we must lavish love and attention on anyone. This should be happening anyway, it should be happening 365 days of the year….a bunch of flowers on a Tuesday, breakfast in bed, a hot bath drawn and home cooked meal – seriously Valentines Day is the reserve of the lazy.

But…if you do happen to fall into this sorry category or if you are simply looking to knock someone socks off with anifty dessert then give this  crack. Warning though, this will open the flood gates to impressive follow ups…it’s not gonna be a one hit wonder! 

WHAT YOU NEED – makes 2

Step 1

Blow up some balloons until they are about the same size as a giant Spanish onion and gave them a little rub with some veg oil…don’t go nuts, just a super thin film.

Step 2

Break up the dark chocolate and drop into a glass bowl – the smaller the bits the quicker the melt.

Step 3

You can melt the chocolate over boiling water or in the micro-wave. To be honest, the ‘nuker’ is the easiest option but do it in blasts of about 20 seconds and stir well after each blast.

Step 4

Line a wide baking tray with grease proof paper and spoon a little bit of the melted dark chocolate onto it to form the base of the chocolate pot.

Step 6

To make the filling whip up the double cream, sugar and brandy to stiff peeks

Step 7

As you did with the dark chocolate, melt the milk chocolate leave it to cool for about 3-4 minutes then add to the cream and whip together until a velety. At this stage you can check the flavour – more brandy or sugar? Also, a little trick here if you want to darken the mix some – add a little coco powder.

Step 8

Spoon the mix into a piping bag and sling into the fridge to set up a little 10 minutes will do it.

Step 9

Next, get the pot out of the fridge and pop the balloons – they should come away from the chocolate with a little encouragement and patience. To finish simply pipe the pots full of the milk chocolate, pop a cherry on top and scatter with ‘scraped’ white chocolate.