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!

Cupcakes!

I love to tinker in the kitchen, but not with lots of tiny, individual items...like cupcakes, or even cookies. However, I was meeting up with an old friend for lunch, and thought it would be nice to bring her some cupcakes. And the day before we went out, my husband, The Artist, wanted a cupcake from Whole Foods. He said I made him want one with all my recent cake/cupcake blog reading. (Imagine, he blames his loving wife for his uncontrollable sweet tooth!) So, it was the perfect situation to kill two birds with one stone.

And, what made it even better was that I found a chocolate cake recipe (Midnight Chocolate Cake ala myrecipes.com) that only made one layer -- perfect for a dozen or so cupcakes. The recipe actually made a dozen plus a ramekins worth.

For The Artist, the ultimate chocoholic, I made half a dozen chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream. As you can see, it didn't take long for him to jump into the cupcakes.


For my friend, she got a half dozen variety pack. She was a guinea pig of sorts because I had a couple of frosting ideas I wanted to try out. She got 2 Blooming Bouquet cupcakes, 2 Cabbage Patch Kid cupcakes (because she's preggo), and 2 chocolate/chocolate cupcakes. The Cabbage Patch Kids need some work, but I have an idea to fix their faces for the next go round!!!



Cupcakes.....I think I like making them, after all. And I have to make more because I only got one!

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