Yummy love cake

It's hard to find any information as to why this cake is called 'love cake'. It also goes under several names such as coffee squares, 'snoddas' and the whole world cake.

The recipe is in one edition of the classic baking book, 'Seven kinds of cakes' (first published in1945) that my mother used to have in the kitchen. She was a good baker, and baked a lot, but hardly ever love cakes, which I missed.

The cake is perfect to serve on Valentine's day.

14th February is Valentine's name day - he was a Christian saint.

In the Middle Ages people believed that birds chose their partners on that day. In England and France boys and girls in the villages were 'paired off ' as pretended couples for the coming year.

The result of this is that Valentine's day has been considered romantic in England ever since the Middle Ages. People also thought the day was the first day of spring.

The legend has it that Valentine was in prison. He had got to know the prison warder's daughter. Before Valentine died he wrote a farewell letter to her and signed it 'your Valentine'.

Ingredients

75 g butter

3 eggs

2 dl sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

2 dl plain flour

2 tbsp cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

1 dl milk

Icing

50 g butter

2 tbsp cocoa

2 tsp vanilla sugar

3.5 dl icing sugar

1.5 - 2 tbsp strong coffee

2 tbsp desiccated coconut

Method

1. Set the oven at 175 degrees. Line a 20 x 20 cm baking tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Melt the butter. Beat the eggs, sugar andd vanilla sugar until they are fluffy.

3. Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Fold into the egg mixture, add the butter and milk.

4. Bake in the lower part of the oven for 20-25 minutes. Test with a knitting-needle - it should come out dry. Let the cake cool for a short time.

5. Melt butter for the icing in a little saucepan. Mix in cocoa, vanilla sugar and icing sugar. Dilute with coffee to make a smooth icing.

6. Make little holes in the cake with a straw, pour the icing over the cake. Sprinkle with desiccated coconut.

Let the cake cool completely., then cut into squares and enjoy!