While Jake and I celebrate our love everyday, we still like to do something a little extra special together and for each other on Valentine's Day. This year, with it falling on a Tuesday, it made it a little harder since I usually have obligations after work M-Th. I didn't need/expect any gifts from my beloved this year, but I knew I wanted to get him something. After wandering around Scheels for a little bit, I found the perfect gift. Now it's no surprise here that Jake loves the Vikings, and so a Coach's Vikings jacket was a very appropriate choice. I was so excited to give it to him along with my "Prince Charming" card that I made!
My sweetie wasn't without surprises himself. I got a call around 4 that day from my school secretary saying that I had a package waiting for me and that it was marked perishable, so I better come get it. (I hadn't been at my building that day because I was an all-day district meeting). Excited, I headed over to pick up and found a dozen HUGE chocolate covered strawberries! Do I have an amazing husband or what?!? Because I had orchestra that night, and Jake wasn't feeling well, we decided to postpone our evening plans and make up for it on the weekend. Instead, we enjoyed each others company, played a little Jeopardy (along with the contestants on the show) and had some great take out from Jethros. Honestly, it really doesn't get better than that!
Now, Valentine's Day just wouldn't be Valentine's Day without a little crafting, and this year was no exception. Jake's work was doing a little party and card exchange, so I agreed to create some treats and cards for him to bring. I've been wanting to continue perfecting my cake pop techniques, so I made heart shaped ones from Strawberry cake and various colored candy coating-resembling the conversation hearts candy we all know and love. To make the heart shapes, I used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter. First I rolled the cake "dough" into a large ball and then flattened it out until it was about 3/4"-1" thick, then cut it with the cookie cutter. Initially, this proved to be harder and more frustrating than the football cake pops I made a couple weeks ago. The hearts were a lot more top heavy, so when I went to dip them, the weight of the heart along with the candy coating caused them to fall apart. I had to throw away quite a few of them. I soon enough realized that instead of dipping them, if I tilted the coffee mug full of melted candy coating on it's side, I could hold the cake pop horizontally to dip and then flip it to the other side to coat it completely instead of dipping it vertically. Worked like a charm and I ended up with 40 beautiful hearts! Unfortunately, the Wilton edible writers totally STINK! They did not work at all. I was pretty disappointed because it prevented me from fully carrying out my creative vision. However, I still think that they turned out pretty darn cute.To package them, I put about 1/2 in the same styrofoam block I used for the football ones, except covered it in red paper this time, for Jake to take to work with him. The other 1/2 I put into small cellophane bags in bunches of 3 and tied them with a silver twist tie for me to bring to work. Cake pop batch #2=success.
This Sunday, my Valentine and I are planning on going to dinner at Red Lobster (I've never been!) using some gift cards we got as a wedding gift-Thanks Uncle Johnny!-and then going to see the movie, "The Vow." Should be a great way to end our weekend!
The cake pops turned out so cute!
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