Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentines Day!

 

I find that the most amazing thing about being married, is I will always have a Valentine!! Then when Brooklynn is born, I will have two! Chris never seize to amaze me and make me feel special on this day.

He not only got me flowers, but he got me 2 bouquets. Let's hope they last...

 

I freaked out when I opened my gift. If you know me, then you know how much I LOVE Wonder Woman. I got my honey a card, a lion stuffed animal, and Skyfall.

 

For this valentines day, I decided to make cupcakes and bring them to work. I got the recipe from http://www.laurenconrad.com and decided to try it. I ended up having to improvise, but they ended up being delicious!! Here is the recipe!!

 

Valentines Day Cupcakes

 

Vanilla Cupcake Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Basic Vanilla Buttercream
• Colored Sprinkles, for decorating, optional
• Alternate frosting: Billy's Chocolate Buttercream

1. Prepare Vanilla Cupcake batter(recipe above)
2. Divide batter into two parts: Put half the butter into a large measuring cup with a spout (to make pouring the batter into the cupcake pan easier) or a medium bowl. Place the other half into a separate bowl and add red food coloring until you reach your desired color. (Tip: I made both pink and red versions, but the red turned out much better since there was more contrast between the two cakes… Lesson learned? Make sure your color is saturated and bold! Light colors will not turn out very well.)
3. Place cupcake liners into cupcake pan.
4. Pre-heat over to 350-degrees.
5. Add about 2 tablespoons of the regular batter to each cupcake tin.
6. Meanwhile, pour red batter into a non-stick baking pan so that there is a thin layer of batter (about half an inch is good).
7. Bake red batter for about 15 to 20 minutes until cooked through. (Tip: It's okay to under-bake them a bit since they will technically be twice-baked.)
8. Allow the red cake to cool completely. Once cooled completely, use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out mini hearts.
9. Place hearts, vertically and face forward into the cupcake pan as shown in the image below. (Tip: It's important to keep them all facing the same direction so that when you finally cut them open, you can see the pretty heart hidden inside.)
10. Once all hearts have been placed, fill the cupcake pan with regular batter until ¾ full.
11. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

I ended up running out of batter, so I used confetti batter to finish it up. They turned out fantastic and pictures are below!! Let me know if you tried any of this.... Enjoy!

 

I had to use A LOT of red food coloring to get this color.

 

 

 

 

For dinner, my honey took me out to the Outback. It was wonderful to spend a nice dinner out with my honey. I can't wait to see what all the years ahead have in store!! What did you do for V-day? Until next time...