Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy V-day! I hope you got to spend today with the one you love. If you're unattached: love yourself, and live it up.

The Artist has got to be the BEST husband ever. We usually don't have a big whoop to do on Valentine's Day. We met on FEbruary 7th, so usually celebrate our love sometime in between. But this year we celebrated V-day on V-day, and he cooked for me! He does cook from time to time, but today, he went all out!

Teriyaki Chicken Wings....

Shrimp Kebabs....

Rib-eye Steaks....

Garlic Mashed Potatoes...

and Broccoli... (we needed something green)

And it was all absolutely delicious. Completely from scratch (he even roasted garlic). With no help from me. I was quite impressed.

But, what is Valentine's Day without a little bit of chocolate? Or a few strawberries? OK,...a lot of chocolate. And Nutella. And strawberries. And almonds.

I introduce to you my favorite new cake: Chocolate with Nutella Buttercream!!! (Sorry, red velvet) Coated in sliced almonds, and topped with the biggest strawberries I've ever seen (This is only a 6" round cake, BTW)




They were so big, I couldn't help but dip them in chocolate too!

Basket Case...I mean Cake

On Tuesday, I finished Wilton Course II. The finale cake features a basket weave design and is overflowing with a lush bouquet of royal icing flowers.


The cake is 1-2-3-4 cake (with lemon extract instead of almond) featured on the back of the Swan's Down Cake Flour box, with Wilton's lemon filling, and lemon cream cheese frosting. I was getting tired of the sticky sweet Class Buttercream, so decided to try this recipe for Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting. Perfect!


The course II student kit comes with two oval pans for baking the final cake. The pans are quite small, which meant.....cupcakes!

The Artist couldn't wait to be my guinea pig and cupcake hand model. He definitely enjoyed the cake...I think he's been eating it for breakfast.

Chocolate Cake Copy Cats

So, last week, I made a chocolate cake to take to a get together with some school friends. It was chocolate cake (Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake) with chocolate buttercream frosting. I used the Wilton recipe for chocolate buttercream; one, because I had not yet tried that recipe, and two, I wanted a consistency that would let me practice my new cake decorating skills. All was well until I tasted a dab of the frosting....

Not what I was expecting. For whatever reason, it didn't taste right. It didn't taste bad, but something was off. It tasted and even smelled...sweeter? The only thing I could think of was that I had run out of regular vanilla in the cake batter and had had to use the Wilton clear vanilla in the frosting. Well, since it was still pretty good, I went ahead and frosted the cake with it using a star tip.

At the party, a couple of people commented on the "something extra" in the frosting, and one asked me if I had used almond extract. And then it hit me! When I grabbed the bottle of clear vanilla, I didn't read the label to make sure that it was vanilla. It actually was almond extract. The two bottles are identical except for a colored stripe. Mea culpa.

So, the cake was an interesting flavor, but no one seemed to mind. Another interesting tidbit is that another friend at the party who is from Canada, wondered where I'd gotten the cake, as it looked exactly like a cake sold only in her country. She said the cakes were nearly identical, right down to the disposable tin foil pan. My mistake cake even tastes identical to the Canadian cake! How funny is that?

My cake:

The Canadian cake, "McCain's Deep and Delicious":
http://www.mccain.ca/framework/builder.aspx?page=SubCategory&lang=en&partition=1&category=3&category1=5028&selected=5028&marker=CMF_LEVEL_TWO_MARKER:CategorySee

My First Cake

Well,...not first cake, exactly. But it is the first cake I made with skills from my Wilton Cake Decorating Course I. I think it turned out pretty good! I'm already planning cakes for my birthday in a few weeks, and my husband's birthday in September. Stay tuned...