How do you feed the people you love?

I’m pretty sure my husband fell in love with me because I can cook. He won’t admit it now, but I can still remember the night, 15 long years ago, when I made him dinner for the first time. Max took one bite of the chicken in cherry sauce I’d thrown together in the dinky kitchen of our Hamptons share house and just stared at me across the table.

I’d known I’d wanted to marry him from the moment I laid eyes on him; apparently he’d needed to taste my cooking first.

But that’s okay. Because food can be a form of love. Chopping, mixing, simmering—what is that if not a ritual, with the end result being its own kind of offering? Think of all the care you put into your cooking. What if that effort doesn’t disappear but, rather, like all energy on earth, it takes on another form? What if the love you put into your cooking is like another nutrient—up there with protein and anti-oxidants—that’s just as essential? After all, none of us can truly thrive without love in our lives.

So then, the only question left is: How do you feed the people you love? On Valentine’s Day, the answer—I think—should be something sweet. Chocolate is ideal. Decadence is a must. Food52 founder Amanda Hesser’s Chocolate Dump-It Cake checks both those boxes. Plus it’s delicious. I’d mastered a good number of desserts—everything from pumpkin pie to panna cotta—but cake, so far, had eluded me. My previous attempts often turned out dense and dry or calling out for more flavor. But maybe all I was missing was the right recipe. This cake turned out moist and light and was incredibly easy to pull together.

To start, you melt some chocolate and butter. The recipe says you should do it over a double boiler, but you can also do it in a heat-proof bowl in a microwave. Next you mix in the wet ingredients: milk, eggs and vinegar to add a little fluffiness (this trick also works with pancakes). Last you sift in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder, etc) and mix in a little vanilla before pouring the batter into a greased and floured pan. Cook until a fork comes out clean when you poke it into the cake. (I cooked my cake in a bundt pan for 35 minutes).

The frosting is even easier. It contains only two ingredients: Melted chocolate chips and sour cream. The only tricky part is making sure you combine the melted chocolate and sour cream when they are at the same temperature so they blend smoothly. (I let my chocolate over cool so it became hard again and had to reheat and recool it.) The end result is a lighter, more chocolatey version of your standard chocolate buttercream.

Once the cake was cooled and frosted, I called my husband over from his perch on the living room couch and offered him a slice.

”From a box?” Max asked after taking his first bite.

“Nope,” I said. “It was from scratch.”

He lifted his eyebrows, impressed. “Nice work,” he said, that look in his eyes, once again.

It wasn’t quite the magical, chicken-in-cherry-sauce moment we’d once had, but I love that after 15 years together I can still surprise him—and myself.