Valentine’s Day Cakelettes

Preheat oven to 350 F (or 325 F if using a dark or coated pan). Line the bottom of a 15 x 10 x 1-inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper.

Mix cake batter according to box directions. Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake cake 20-25 minutes, turning pan halfway through the baking time. Cake is done when center springs back or when a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove pan from the oven and set it on a cooling rack. Cool on rack 10 minutes. Invert cake onto the rack and carefully remove parchment. Cool completely.

When cool, use a heart-shaped cookie cutter (about 2-inches at widest part) and cut out heart-shaped portions of cake. Place portions on a rack set inside of a large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.

Prepare ganache by putting cream into a saucepan and heating it to a simmer. Remove from heat and add remaining ganache ingredients. Let the mixture sit for 2 minutes before stirring. Then with a wire whisk, beat ganache until smooth.

Using a small ladle or very large spoon, coat each cakelette with ganache. Ganache that has dripped into the pan beneath may be scraped up and reheated and used for additional glazing. Let ganache set. This will take about 4 hours.

Melt white chocolate and shortening in the microwave on 30 second increments, stirring in between. Continue for additional 30 second increments until smooth. Stir until completely smooth. Using a plastic sandwich bag or the squeeze bottle mentioned above, pipe thin lines of white chocolate diagonally across hearts. Let set.