Treats for St. Valentine's Day!

First, I made red velvet cookies and sandwiched them with cream cheese frosting between. The recipe was simple as could be: I bought some red velvet cake mix, added eggs and butter, and baked it, then mixed cream cheese, sugar, butter and vanilla for the filling. I got the recipe from Bakerella, of course, and I was very pleased that my cookies not only looked as good as advertised, but tasted delicious. I will certainly have to make these again. :)





Next it was time for some Oreo truffle pops. I made Bakerella's truffles with some modifications, the most important of which was that I mixed the Oreos with about 6 ounces of crème fraîche instead of 8 ounces of cream cheese. Cream cheese is great in many contexts, but in truffles I don't like the way it competes with the Oreo flavor. Crème fraîche is French cultured cream, like our sour cream but much milder and a bit sweeter. It was perfect for binding the Oreo crumbs together without introducing too much flavor of its own. After I rolled the mixture into balls, I stuck lollipop sticks into them.




A forest of Oreo balls on sticks. It's mesmerizing.




This is the woman from whom I inherited a love of baking, plus good looks, skill, awesomeness and humility. She approved my unfinished Oreo pops. I love you, Mom!




All right, so then I coated the suckers in red chocolate and stuck them in a green foam block to dry. I had originally planned to serve them that way, but they looked a bit scary. Kind of like the turtle formation used by the Roman legions.

So I stuck them all upright and helped myself. :)





And then I made another batch of Sprite cupcakes with buttercream frosting, this time decorating them in many different ways. The flowers were homemade, some from a mold and some as described in the post below.





Of course it all would have felt pointless if I hadn't been able to con some folks into coming over and eating the goods!





The birthday girl is being handed flowers. Others provided curry chicken soup, rice noodles, and vegetables, all of which were delicious. We then sat around the table and read Summorum Pontificum and the pope's explanatory letter to bishops of the same. Now who could imagine a better way to celebrate than that?

And no, that is not our Christmas tablecloth being recycled for St. Valentine's Day. That is a St. Valentine tablecloth with berry-shaped hearts and hollyleaf-shaped flowers, all right?
:)