Caving in

This is what caving in to the holiday-industrial complex looks like.

I’ve never had much use for Valentine’s Day; the whole idea of mandatory expressions of love and affection just annoys me. Plus it mainly seems to end up making people feel bad: single people feel bad about not being in a relationship, while people in relationships are made to feel that their tokens of esteem are deficient somehow—the wrong kind of (overpriced) dinner out, the insufficiently pricey/showy bouquet of flowers, box of chocolates, or shiny trinket.

Who needs the stress?



Of course, six-year-olds don’t have any of that baggage. They look at Valentine’s Day and they see an opportunity to eat lots of sugary goodies, make stuff with construction paper and glue, and hug people. Anything heart-shaped is a cause of great excitement, at least in my house.

Well, who am I to argue with that agenda? Particularly when I can use it as an opportunity to subvert the dominant commercial paradigm with some homemade goodies. And as long as we’re going down that road, perhaps we can re-cast my disastrous fail at tempering chocolate as a bold, unconventional gesture. Or something like that.

Heart cakes
I made a single layer of gold cake and cut it out with a heart cookie cutter. Mixed up half a batch of fluffy buttercream, colored it pink, scooped it into a piping bag with a star-shaped tip attached and went to town. Pretty much like cupcakes (follow the link for cake & frosting recipes), but with a little more scope for creative expression.

Makes 10-12 cakes with leftover cake scraps and icing globs.

P.S.: I won’t be giving you a recipe for the chocolates until I’ve produced something presentable.