Valentine's Day!

I had a pretty good Valentine's Day. I usually do, I am one of those people who even when I was single I loved Valentine's Day! We've kind of been trading off making plans each year. And we try to keep it to a reasonable price! We've done the fancy restaurant with the Prix Fixe menus and this year I decided to skip that and make dinner at home! Why? Especially when if we eat out I don't have to do dishes. Well I can be a picky eater so a limited menu isn't that great. And I find that even at the nicest places where the food would normally be made to order and amazing isn't all that great when they serve the limited menu. I think its because they know they will be busy so they make some things in advance and simply warm them up prior to serving them. Obviously with dessert that isn't a problem but things like pasta - at a 5 star Italian restaurant, I expect my pasta and sauce to be hot and taste fresh when it comes out. I expect my bread to be fresh and soft. Not hard like it's been sitting out waiting on me to arrive. I like to have options for my veggies and sides. And I prefer that my veggies be cooked when I order them. And I expect at $100 pp to enjoy each course. We went to one Italian place where the pasta was mushy and over cooked. I was actually surprised they served it instead of tossing it and starting over. Again if I pay $100 I fully expect tasty well prepared food! So to save me from going on yet another rant on Yelp about how the price didn't come close to being worth the food, I made our dinner. Served on a gorgeous red tablecloth with black napkins. Rib-eye steak, spicy roasted potatoes and roasted broccoli. And we have conversation heart cupcakes using Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake recipe. (it was suggested to use ghirardelli chocolate but my grocery store didn't have it). And I used this Tutorial for the heart toppers. It was super easy and tasty.(and not even close to $100 pp) I forgot to take pictures of the dinner but I did get a few of the dessert! And here they are. 

These were my heart shaped choices! I chose the individual cups! $9.99 at Michael's!

Getting ready to make the hearts!

Candy melts! I used the double boiler method for melting. These were $2.99 each at Michael's. The red is Vanilla flavor and the white is limited edition Marshmellow flavor. I added some red to the white because I used a white icing I didn't want to do white on white.

Used a sharpie to trace the first batch of hearts - very easy but I suggest you trace and flip it over, my first batch had ink on the back :-( 

Not the greatest writing but I think it isn't too bad for my first time!

The molds are hearts - the cupcakes really not so much. These would have been just fine without the heart shaped molds. 

Gently press conversation heart onto cupcake and you're all set!

This was fun and easy. And the cake recipe was delicious. I suggest if you use the sillicone molds to spray them prior to baking as it was a wee bit difficult to remove the cupcakes without them coming apart! And I'm clearly addicted to cream cheese icing! I need to branch out! Oh and this was my first scratch cake in years! I had forgotten how easy it is. Just as easy as a box mix really. Only without all the stuff I can't pronounce!

I hope you had a wonderful Valentines Day!