Happy Valentines!

I had some leftover fondant from my last cake class, and decided to use it up on a cute Valentines day cake. It started with the green fondant and then I had the great idea to make some lady bugs. As it was Valentines, I decided to try some writing. I think it turned out pretty good considering I had no idea what I was going to do when I started!

The cake was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting - everyone at work enjoyed it and I had no trouble finding someone to take the last piece off my hands!

Lady bug with her antennae (I couldn't decide if I liked them better with or without).

Cinnamon Cookies

I love cinnamon, so naturally I am fan of cinnamon hearts. I had a large bag of cinnamon hearts and decided to try and make a cookie out of them for valentines, as I wanted something new and special.

Cinnamon Heart Cookies

¼ + 2 tbsp butter
¾ cup crushed cinnamon hearts
1 egg
¼ tsp vanilla
1 ¼ cup flour
½ tsp baking poweder

powdered sugar
crushed cinnamon hearts

Directions:
1.Cream the butter and then add the crushed cinnamon hearts and continue creaming. Add in the egg and vanilla until well mixed.
2.Add the flour ½ cup at a time and the baking powder until mixed.
3.Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
4.Sprinkle the counter top with powdered sugar and roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick.
5.Cut out cookies and place on a cookie sheet, sprinkle the top of the cookies with the remaining crushed candies.
6.Bake at 400F for 6-7 minutes.

Reviews:
I fed these to my students and they all seemed to really enjoy them. Theya re great slightly crispy cookies with a little kick of cinnamon to them. They make a fun and easy Valentines treat, or a great treat for anyone who is a fan of cinnamon hearts!

The missing Cookie Cutter

So, I decided to make some heart shaped sugar cookies for Valentines day. I had everything ready to go and I couldn't find my heart shaped cookie cutter. So thinking that because it is Valentines day and everyone should have lots of heart shaped cookie cutters, off I go in search of one. Turns out not a single store within walking distance from my house has heart shaped cookie cutters and so, I returned home without a cookie cutter and not sure what I was going to do.

Then in a moment of brilliance I decided to make my own cookie cutter - How hard could it be right? Well about an hour or so later and after experimenting with different types of matterials, I managed to come up with a pretty decent heart shaped cookie cutter. I was really impressed that I had managed to bend a coat hanger into such a decent looking heart! Well when Hubby got home, he was not all that impressed and just headed straight for the cookies. However, everyone else has loved my cookie cutter so I thought I would share!

So here it is:

Valentines Cookies

So, as my husband was working evenings all last week, I had some time to kill and decided to make some valentines day cookies. I was craving chocolate chip cookies so I decided to try and make them look a little more festive. So, I made small cookies and then pressed chocolate hearts into them when they came out of the oven. These cookies were delicious and totally satisfied my chocolate chip cookie cravings.

I love this recipe and haven't found one much better yet, even though it comes from the back of my Chipits.

Ingredients
1 cup shortening or softened margerine/butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Chocolate chips
Chocolate hearts

Method:
1. Cream together the shortening and the sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to the sugar mixture.
3. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 375.

I baked the cookies in a mini muffin tin to get the round shape and then pressed the chocolate hearts into the top of the cookies as soon as they came out of the oven.

These were delicious!

I also wanted some festive sugar cookies and was excited to try April's recipe she got from a friend. The cookies turned out great, and my husband's hockey team loved them.

Lollipop Flower Valentines

I decided to make my own Valentines this year and found a picture of these on the internet. They looked easy enough, so I tried.


Materials:
Lollipop
Coloured paper
Glue Stick
Whole punch.

How to:
Cut out hearts, Glue to hearts together by the tips.

Punch a hole in the center of where the hearts are glued together. Push the stick of the lollipop through the whole.

Repeat for the next set of heart petals.

Note: On the red flower I folded the petals in to make a more "closed" flower.

The leaves will have each persons name on them and will be a heart taped/glued around the stick/stem.