I’ve had my eye on two different Valentine treats from
Pinterest for the past couple months and couldn’t wait to get in my kitchen
this week. I wanted to make enough to share with co-workers, friends and our
new neighbor.
First up, red velvet chocolate chip cookies. These looked
delicious, festive and pretty simple. So, yesterday evening I put my apron on
and started baking up goodies! These cookies are easy only needing a few
ingredients, short amount of baking time and simple to toss together. Perfect
if you had little ones that wanted to help in the kitchen. I do not, but it was
fun for me!
Ingredients
1 Red Velvet Box Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (the recipe called for semi-sweet but
I used milk chocolate)
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat eggs and vanilla together.
Add the oil and the boxed cake mix and hand mix together
until fully incorporated.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop the cookies in balls onto a greased cookie sheet and
bake for 8-10 minutes.
Ta-da! Quick, easy and these are delicious! Kyle and I test
tasted a few of them before I packaged the rest up to share with co-workers and
our new neighbor today.
Next up, homemade creamed filled chocolate Valentine Love
cakes. AKA homemade Ding Dongs. I could not wait to make these adorable festive
bites of heaven. As the cookies, I found this recipe on Pinterest and of course
I feel like I can always recreate
Pinterest creations. Let’s just get
started…
Ingredients
Cakes:
1 box of your favorite chocolate cake mix
All ingredients needed to make the mix as directed on the
box.
Cream filling:
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbs flour
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I used 1/3 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Icing:
1 tub of your favorite store bought chocolate fudge icing
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips
Love Icing:
1 tub of your favorite vanilla icing
Directions
Prepare your boxed cake mix according to the box directions.
I used a heart shaped silicone cupcake holder but you could
use a regular cupcake pan as well. I only had one pan so this was a little time
consuming to do four different batches. Prepare your pan by spraying a good
coat of Pam so your cakes do not stick.
I over filled my cakes on purpose so I would be able to
level them off evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
After each batch or if you have just one, cut tops off and leave to cool on rack.
Cream filling:
In a medium sauce pan whisk together milk and flour. After
several minutes the mixture will become creamy as it is gravy. Remove from heat
and cool to room temperature.
In a mixer cream together sugar and vegetable shortening.
Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat on high until
fluffy.
After you cakes are cooled completely use a small cookie cutter to hollow out a
small hole in each cake. Or just use your fingers to pinch out the middle to
fill with cream.
In a piping bag using a large start tip I filled each cake
with the cream filling.
I was having Kyle help with the pics...
Icing:
Mix together your tub of icing and chocolate chips on low
heat until melted in a small sauce pan.
Dip each cake covering the bottom with the cream hole with
chocolate to keep from getting hard from air. Let all dry completely. You do
not want your cakes to stick to the wax paper once turning over.
Once your cakes are completely cooled turn them over onto
wax paper and begin pouring the chocolate to cover all sides of your cake.
(This was the hardest part of the recipe for me, obviously.)
Once all cakes are hardened use a piping bag and fill with vanilla
icing. I just ended up cutting a small tip opening in the bag instead of using
a tip. Then attempt your “Love” on each cake.
Ahhh ok, these cakes were very time consuming. Fun, but time
consuming. Since like I said I only had
one pan it took me an hour to just get my cakes baked. The other hard part for
me was the chocolate covering. I wish I would have dunked the cakes rather than
pour because a lot weren’t evenly coated and it ended up just being a huge
mess. Now, the cakes are delicious but they are not the cutest coming from my
kitchen. They are all being delivered to my tiniest valentines so there won’t
be any judgment!
Original recipe found here.
Have you made any fun festive sweets this week? I hope
everyone’s week has been filled with love and lots of pink and red hearts! XOXO
Yum!! I'll take one of each. :)
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