Fun Homemade Valentines

Valentine's Day is just about 10 days away.  Do you have kids that exchange valentines at school?  My two youngest kids are in elementary school, so they both exchange valentines with classmates.  We are required to give one to each kid.  I don't mind that. But, this year I'm pretty sure my son is going to give me a hard time with that.  You see, he and his best friend have been having some issues with one of their classmates.  Never the less, we will do a valentine for each child.

A few years ago we made these cute "Love Bug" valentines for my son's class.  This was before my youngest daughter was in school.

 I bought a 24 pack of mini canvass, a red ink pad, and black permanent marker.  We started by making the bugs with 2 thumb prints, we did that on all of the valentines and waited for them to dry.   Then we drew little antenna and faces on each bug.  Once that was dry my son wrote his name on each one.  They were a big hit!

Last year one of my friends posted a craft idea for heart shaped crayons that she was doing for her son's preschool class.  I loved it! You can see that here.  I went in search of molds that I could use to make my own.  I couldn't find anything like it, but got a chocolate silicone mold that was really pretty.  I just put broken crayons in various colors in each mold.  I heated them up in the microwave because of the fact that my mold was silicone.  I kept checking on them at minute increments.  I used tooth pick to pop any bubbles that came up.

I love the pattern!

This is what they look like at the back.

I added these crayons to goodie bags for both of my youngest kids'  classes since I didn't think they would stick to a valentine.

My question to you is.. Do you have a fun valentine idea?  Share with me, since I'm not sure what to do this year.

Making Healthier Sweets From Scratch-Cake and Frosting

I'm trying to get more healthy with the sweets we eat by making them myself with healthier ingredients.  I have made brownies from scratch a couple of times before, my family loved them.  So, I thought I would branch out to cake and frosting.  

My oldest daughter's 16th birthday was in January.  I wanted to make her a special cake; since she is obsessed with Dr. Who, I made her a Tardis cake.  I used a boxed cake and my husband made his specialty (cream cheese frosting,) he prefers that to any of the pre-made frostings.  But, he has said that he can't get any other frostings to come out right.  Then I put fondant on it.

  This is the result of about three hours of work, after it was baked.

You might be wondering what the cake above has to do with anything.  Well, after seeing this cake; my 5 year old daughter decided to tell me what type of cake she wants for her birthday-in May.  Not really unusual for her since she starts talking about her next birthday as soon as her current birthday is over.  Anyway, this is what she wants- a six layer chocolate cake, with the bottom layer being red velvet for her big sister.  Then she wants purple frosting with decorations (this detail keeps changing to match whichever theme she is loving at the moment.)  This prompted my desire to make a few frostings and see which one my youngest likes the best.  More difficult than you might think because she is super picky and only recently started liking cake-last year her birthday "cake" was brownies.  

Since I was making frosting from scratch I decided to make cake from scratch as well.  The cake recipe I got from a google search.  It was just a basic butter cake recipe, I added cocoa powder to it but it only has a very slight chocolate flavor.  The frosting recipe I got from one of my friends-it's called Egg Yolk Frosting, I made a few changes though.  Here is the original recipe:

Egg Yolk Frosting
4 Tbs soft shortening (I use half butter) 
1.5 tsp vanilla, 
1 large egg yolk, beat till smooth.. 
Add 1.5 Tablespoons milk and 
About 2 cups powered sugar beat until smooth..

(add extra powered sugar till I get the consistency you like)

Instead of the shortening and butter I used a product called Melt, which I just learned about last week and a tiny bit of coconut oil and I also used a pasteurized egg yolk because I'm worried about consuming raw eggs and getting sick.

Something to keep in mind is to mix everything very well.  The more you mix it the better the texture will be.

The Melt Spread that I used is the Rich and Creamy and it's organic, contains great healthy fats, and GMO free!  A much healthier alternative to butter or shortening.  After my husband tasted the frosting he said it needed a little more fat, that is why I added a tiny bit of coconut oil, probably 1/4 teaspoon.  That did the trick to make the frosting have the "right amount of body" as my husband said.

The recipe above was only enough to frost the 9x13 cake (still in the pan) so when I make it again I will double it.  Why would I need more than just the right amount of frosting?  A couple of reasons.  First my 5 year old loved the frosting, much more than the cake and after eating the top of her piece she wanted me to give her more frosting to eat the rest of her cake.  And two I used foil to cover the cake when I put it in the fridge and some of the frosting stuck to the foil.  Bummed about that.  So, my advice is to have extra.    

I poured the frosting on while the cake was still warm and poked holes in the cake so the frosting would go into them.

This is the finished product.

The family liked it a lot and even though my youngest really liked this frosting I am going to try a couple more.  Just to be sure I use the right one on her 6th birthday cake.

Melt Spread comes in three different flavors, the Rich and Creamy, Honey Melt, and Chocolate Melt. I could only find the Rich and Creamy at my local Whole Foods; but am hopeful that I will be able to find them soon!