Valentine's Sweets

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! As I said yesterday, Megan came over on Monday night to bake. We only got half of what we wanted done.

The Pretzel treats are by far the EASIEST. So quick to make! You lay out square pretzels and place a chocolate on top. (A lot of people use Hershey's Kisses, we used Wilton's melting chocolate wafers.)

I found dark chocolate raspberry flavored wafers at Michaels so I mixed those in too. We were cooking brownies at the same time so just put the pretzel chocolates in the oven for about 60 seconds or until the chocolate looked melty then placed a Valentine's M&M on top of each one.

Next we melted Wilton colored chocolate wafers (white and pink) in zip lock bags, cut off a tip and piped it on top of the pretzels. So cute and only takes about 10 minutes to make!

The brownies were a little more difficult. Our first batch didn't want to come out of the pan. (Even though I sprayed it with cooking spray!)

We used the same heart shaped cookie cutters from the sugar cookies to cut out heart brownies. I quickly realized that we weren't going to get a ton of brownies from this mix - and then we got even less when the brownies stuck to the pan.

I got a little smarter with the second batch and used the ever-trusty Wilton Cake Release to grease the pan and the brownies slid out perfectly.

There is so much scrap brownie when you're cutting out hearts... Cook's Treat!!

The lastly there's the sugar cookies. My old stand-by! Megan and I ran out of time to frost them on Monday so I did it last night while catching up on Downton. Sidenote: if you are also watching Downton, you HAVE to read the Facebook Recap. It's written as if the whole episode took place on Facebook and is HILARIOUS. Back to the cookies - The two designs I did weren't very intricate but still look great. It didn't take too long to do which was nice. And of course I sprinkled Disco-dust all over them. What's Valentine's Day with out a little SPARKLE??

Nerdy Valentines

I wanted to hand-make valentines again this year - but time was not on my side. I did manage to get a baking night in with my friend Megan (look for that post tomorrow!). Geek & Sundry posted some amazing LOTR valentines on Facebook yesterday. I should have printed them out and sent them around!!

I mean - aren't the BRILLIANT!?!?! Then I searched the internets for my favorite Doctor Who valentines and found a few gems. 

Seriously - next year everyone will be getting valentines themed around all of my favorite movies/TV shows printed out on cardstock. Man I love the internet.

Baking Hearts

I had planned on leisurely baking my valentine's treats this weekend but the weekend got away from me. Instead of baking I saw 2 movies (The Grey and The Vow - the latter I enjoyed much more but also cried a lot more), attended a Valentine's dessert concert, a jewelry party, and ate at PF Changs where my fortune was looking pretty good:

Then it looked less good when my brother got the same one. LAME.

Anyways, it was a fun weekend but my procrastination led to me baking like a mad woman last night. I rushed home from work and started on the whoopie pies. The pan came with recipes for both chocolate and vanilla cake. I made the chocolate first… they did not turn out so well.

This was the first time I'd ever made cake from scratch. The recipe says to stir it until it is just mixed, but I don't think I stirred it enough. The batter was difficult to get into the whoopie molds and I ended up with a lot of ugly peaks in my cakes.

Since I only have 1 whoopie pie pan I had to bake it in two batches. I stirred the batter more before the second batch and they turned out much better. I ended up cutting the top half of the cakes so the ugly side was in the middle. The filling was very easy to make, a little sticky to fill - but I just used the back of a spoon to smooth out the sides. Then I decorated with sprinkles!!

Learning from my mistakes, the vanilla cakes turned out much better. I dyed it pink (yay!) and made sure to mix the batter well.

The batter smoothed out much better for these.

mmmm. Woopie Pie filling.

Next I moved on to the Pie Pops. I love the pre-rolled pie crust Pillsbury makes. It's just so easy to use! One circle made 7 hearts. I placed them on the cookie sheet, placed a rod on top and some canned cherry pie filling. Four cherries were a little too much - the juice squeezed out the sides, so I went down to 3 cherries per pop. 

Using the end of one of the rods, I pressed the edges together. I brushed on some egg whites and baked them. At this point it was close to midnight, so I only made 7. I wanted to get more pictures of the step-by-step process, but my phone had died and of course I left the charger at work. I didn't mind too much because I still have my Sony Cyber-shot camera - but when I turned it on this is what I saw:

Looks like it's time for a new camera!!

I'll still have to play around with the pie pops - 4 of the 7 turned out really well. The rod either fell out or broke through the crust on the other 3. But broken or whole, they all tasted pretty good!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Cards & Envelopes

I don't think I've hand-made valentines since college but I was inspired by my Martha Stewart Living magazine this year. I bought cute valentine card stock from Michaels and printed out templates from Martha Stewart's website to create some fun accordion and garland valentines.

I used an exacto knife and a self healing cutting mat to cut out most of the shapes. (How awesome is a SELF HEALING mat??)

I also had fun with glitter glue and stickers. I AM PERPETUALLY 5 YEARS OLD.

The bad thing about making your own valentines is finding envelopes to send them in. I thought, hey - why don't I try just making my own? I sacrificed an envelope from a stationary set I have, tore it apart and traced it onto cardstock to make my very own envelopes! Then I used stickers and Disney themed tape to secure them before plopping them in the mail.

For the valentines I didn't have to mail I used an old calendar to make fun bright envelopes. 

Thank you to the World Wildlife Fund for some beautiful pictures!! 

Wednesday Review: Martha Stewart Living

I realize this isn't a book but the February issue of Martha Stewart Living arrived in the mail yesterday and I can't stop looking through it! With sections on Healthy Living, Beauty, Cooking, Homekeeping, and Technology there's a ton of information you can glean from this magazine.

Each issue starts with "Martha's Month" a calendar with "gentle reminders, helpful tips, and important dates" for the month. Feb 1 - "Look through photos to determine which can be framed for Valentine's Day gifts." This is how Martha stays on top of her 'A' game. Though I am surprised that "plan menu for Super Bowl party" is 2 days before the actual Super Bowl. Maybe Martha is a procrastinator deep down inside just like me! She also suggests when to sow and plant seeds for different plants. (Something I would love to get into!) Some of the suggestions on the calendar however are things that will never ever apply to me: "Order baby chicks for the chicken coop."

There are great recipes inside with eye-popping pictures and step by step instructions. They even include detachable recipe cards for some of them. Nutritional information is provided as well which is always a plus for me.

I'm in full Valentine's mode (if you couldn't tell by yesterday's post) so my favorite section is on make-it-yourself Valentines. There are tips and how-to's for accordion cards, garland cards, and plain illustrated cards. A great thing about Martha Stewart is all of the templates are included online and there is also a "Workbook" section in the back for more step by step instructions on crafts found throughout the magazine.  I think I will round up all the Victoria's Secret tissue paper I can find to try to make the wall heart from the cover.

Martha is definitely the hostess with the mostest. She has wonderful tips about throwing parties and how to give them that extra "wow-factor." I love this magazine and look forward to seeing it in my mailbox every month!

Woopie Pies & Pops

I know a lot of single people hate Valentine's Day but I love it. I love the cheesy Valentine's cards, the fact that I can wear red and pink together, that the Arlington Drafthouse shows Princess Bride every year, and all the Valentine's themed crafts and goodies there are to make!

I have recently become obsessed with Williams-Sonoma. Whenever I get a catalogue I find myself flipping through thinking "of course I need a mini pie-maker!" In the last issue I found a whole section of Valentine's treats you can buy.

 I WANT THEM ALL…. but Williams-Sonoma is nothing if not expensive. Why spend $50 on 12 heart-shaped woopie pies when I can make them myself??

Yup, I bought the woopie pie pan at Michael's (with a 40% off coupon) last time I was there. I also bought the lollipop rods to try and make the Pie Pops. The pan comes with a recipe for the woopie pies, but I'll be winging the Pie Pops. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Also, I really want to give these out as my Valentines this year