In an attempt to bypass the cutesy bow + arrow Valentine’s Day cakes this year, I’ve created 2 different cakes and wanted to share them to give you all some ideas if you plan on doing any baking for your Valentine.  As moody and romantic as they cakes may look, my inspiration behind the flavors was sweet and savory – the idea came from junk food snacks I had been craving (oops!).

For the first cake I made a chocolate cake and then assembled it as a naked cake in between layers of chocolate buttercream. I added a light layer of chocolate buttercream around the exterior of the cake and then topped the cake with popcorn, a dash of sea salt, and drizzled milk chocolate.

For the second cake, I made a dark chocolate cake and coated it in dark chocolate ganache. Once the ganache set, I sprinkled the top of the cake with Himalayan Sea Salt. If you plan on replicating this, I’d go a bit lighter on the sea salt, as I was just going for a dramatic effect in the photo.