I can't say I have ever been a big participant in the Valentine's Day celebrations. Maybe it's because of one outstanding memory I have of a Valentine's Day celebration from second grade. Coming from Upstate New York, Valentine's Day falls in the middle of winter- cold, snowy, windy and icy winter. In "those" days ( and I'm dating myself here) we walked, yes, actually walked to and from school!
It was traditional to exchange Valentine cards with classmates and get all kinds of little packets with candy hearts and other sweets. I remember having a large package of all my Valentine cards and candies in a plastic bag. I was all bundled up except for some reason I decided not to put my mittens on before leaving school. Walking home, I began to drop things, the bag ripped and I was struggling to hold on to everything with my "unmittened", freezing hands. I began to cry (as the tears froze on their way down my cheeks), somehow finally made it home to find that my hands had become slightly frostbitten. Ouch! Mom ran them under cold(yes!)water and slowly but surely the pain disappeared, but I was left with a not so nice memory of Valentine's Day.
This week's recipe for Baked Sunday Mornings, was a chocolate (what else for Valentine's Day?!) or actually , black velvet cake. They are decorated like the candy messages we all remember from our childhood- LUV U!, BE MINE! etc. etc. I followed the recipe exactly except for the fact that "black cocoa" is literally unobtainable in this neck of the woods so I used regular cocoa- the best I could get here.
The frosting is a cream cheese base frosting, which I usually have no trouble with, but this time something went wrong. Not sure if my amounts were off or if I over beat it, but it came out very runny- good but runny. Even after refrigeration, it didn't hold it's shape. Once in a while, it's good to have a bit of a failure, just to keep things real.
I love to decorate cookies as well and this was a wonderful opportunity to get back into it after a long hiatus. I forgot how much I enjoy the cookie decorating!
I have a weakness for stores that sell all different kinds of cupcake liners, paper cake molds and well, all baking supplies, so when I see something I like, I buy it. Even if I don't need it right at the moment. Sometime, somewhere, some occasion may pop up and those little liners or molds will be perfect! So, on one of my rounds of those stores, I came across these heart shaped baking papers. Couldn't resist, bought them, and put them upon the shelf to wait patiently for their turn. And their turn came! Instead of making a flat cake and cutting out the heart shapes, I simply poured the batter directly into the molds. So, mine are one layer, quite thick, but a nice size for two to share. How appropriate for the occasion!
Happy Valentine's Day! Get the recipe here.
Enjoy!
