Sasha's Top 10: Valentine's Day Roundup

Valentine's Day is less than a week away, and boy I've been surfing Pinterest like I have a room full of baby furniture that I don't want to assemble!  Or something.

Anyway, I'll be the first to admit, there's a lot about Valentine's Day that makes me gag.  I don't go in for artificial sugar, y'know?  Food coloring, heart vomit and sparkly, glittery, "LOOKIT HOW IN LURVE WE ARE, SHNOOPY SHNOOPY!" are really not my thing.  That said, it can be a fun excuse to show a certain someone or someones in your life how much they mean to you - said someones to include significant others, children, good friends, cats or even thy sweet self.  Also chocolate.  There is SO MUCH CHOCOLATE lying around this time of year, and that can only be a good thing.

So I've compiled a collection of Valentine's Day ideas that I actually quite enjoy.  I think there's something for everyone here, so I hope that no matter who you are or who you're with, you'll find something you can enjoy here.

Cherry Cordial Cupcakes, by Lemon Sugar

These decadent cupcakes are perfect for you, your sweetie or your best friend.  They're impressive to look at, easy to make, and Lemon Sugar lays out the whole recipe for you.

Chocolate Raspberry Cups, by The Frugal Girls

Step-by-step instructions on how to create your own edible chocolate cups, to fill with whatever kind of berries or deliciousness you want, really.  Or you could spend lots of money for the same thing at Godiva.  I vote handmade, of course!

Chocolate-Dipped Clementine Hearts, from Premeditated Leftovers

If, like me, you're actually capable of getting sick of all the ooey-gooey sugary crap you have to wade through this time of year, this simple technique will be just the thing!  Easy, and healthy and bite-sized!  The darker the chocolate you use, the more anti-oxidants you get, you know.

DIY Fingerprint Heart Print, by Restoration Beauty

An easy, personalized gift - perfect if you have kids, or are in a polyamorous group relationship.

Hot Chocolate Bar, by Clean and Scentsible

Oh man, I would TOTALLY have my husband, who shall remain nameless, wake up to this on Valentine's Day!  If Valentine's Day weren't on a workday this year.  Instead, I think I shall blunder around trying to put clothes on right-side-out before the sun rises and save this for another year (and the idea for another holiday!)

Pretty much the best Valentine's Day cards ever, by Castle McQuaid

No really, you have GOT to check out this guy's Etsy shop.  There are many more cards where these came from, each one as geeky and great as the last!  I don't care what you think of Valentine's Day, if Yoda Cupid and Heart-Throb Lando don't make you smile, then man...I can't help you.

Shakespeare Chalkboard Printables, by Mad in Crafts

I love these printables.  Lovelovelove them!  They're cute without being cutsey, they're literary and they really mean something.  If you don't know how to express your love, you can't go wrong letting the bard do it for you, with these free printables.

Dried Strawberries, by The Worldwide Gourmet

Another quick, healthy snack that still gets the "look, we're going for pink things that are vaguely heart shaped and sweet" thing across.

Burlap Valentine Wreath, by The September Tree

I love this wreath, because it fits the theme with a nod to the lingering winter.  

More Unusually Awesome Valentine's Day Cards, by Landeelu

These free printable cards say things like "You are pretty much my favorite husband," and "You're the one I want to be next to when you're on your computer and I'm on mine."  They're awesome cuz they're true!

Recipe: SUGARY SUGARY BUTTERCREAM!!!

Now I'm not saying I'm above eating cake frosting with a spoon out of the can, but let's face it:  making your own buttercream is the way to go if you've got a few extra minutes (which you do while your cupcakes are baking).  It is stupid simple, all natural and ridonkulously tasty.  Here's the recipe I use.

SUGARY SUGARY BUTTERCREAM

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups (3 sticks) butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

• Beat the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
• Sift the sugar over the butter and mix together.  Start on low speed so you don't poof a cloud of sugar right into your face, and then increase to full speed.
• When combined, your buttercream should be frosty and spreadable.  If your icing is more crumbly than spreadable, add more butter 1 tbsp at a time until you reach the right consistency.  If your buttercream is still buttery and slippery, sift more sugar into the bowl, 1/8 cup at a time, until it looks how it's supposed to.
• Splash in the vanilla extract and mix everything up well.

Tips and Variations:

• Your buttercream will be the color of whatever butter you used - likely the yellower the better.  It takes coloring well, though.
• For some color and added flavor, try adding pureed strawberries, raspberries or blueberries.
• For still more flavor (but not necessarily much in the way of noticeable color), try adding some mashed banana or banana extract.
• A small amount of beet juice will get you a nice, vibrant red or pink without actually tasking of beets.
• A small amount of tumeric will get you a nice yellow color without actually tasting of Indian food.
• For April Fools cupcakes, dump in the tumeric and add some curry powder.  MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Basic Non-Ugly Icing Technique:

I am not a professional cake decorator, and I do not have children who require Martha Stewart-level birthday confections.  I do not own a piping bag, and if I did I wouldn't know what to do with it (ALL those NOZZLES!).  But here's a cheap and basic way to ice cupcakes that comes out a bit more polished-looking than haphazard slathering.  I also used this technique to create the dots around the base of this cake.

• Let your cupcakes cool completely before icing, or your buttercream will become a melty, runny mess (or at the very least, be hard to spread evenly).
• Transfer buttercream into a ziplock bag and snip a tiny bit off of one corner.
• Squeeze the buttercream out onto the top of each cupcake in a spiral pattern.  If you work from the outside in, you'll be able to form a nice peak in the center.
• You can leave the spiral pattern as-is.  This will also give you a good, even base if you're inclined to smooth everything down with a butter knife.

CUPCAKES!!! With a snazzy free printable.

We're kicking off the busy season at work today.  I won't go into details (they're the boring kind, not the "if I told you I'd have to kill you" kind), but the season goes by the acronym "SWT."  The "S" stands for summer - not that it's REMOTELY summery here in Kyiv at the moment, but it's essentially us gearing up for the summer.

So I decided to celebrate the kickoff by bringing cupcakes to work.  Cupcakes with RIDICULOUS CUPCAKE TOPPERS!!!  Muahahahahaaaaaaa.......

Click here to download the PDF file.

Folks, this is my first go creating printables, so please pardon the crude design.  I rather dig the crude design, actually.  I feel like toppers for cupcakes meant to celebrate the insane season at work sort of ought to look like they were drawn in crayon by a 4-year-old.  I figure none of you will have much use for cupcake toppers that say "SWT," so I'm just including a sheet of all-purpose "OMG" toppers for download.  If you DO happen to be in my same boat, though, and actually want SWT cupcake toppers, send me an email and I will totally hook you up.

You'll find cupcake topper printables online in perfect cirlce-shapes or even scalloped flowerdy-shapes.  These require a special paper punch to cut out neatly.  I do not own a special paper-punch (I'm a scrapper, for sure, but I am Not.  A.  Scrapbooker).  So I designed these to be cut into squares on straight lines between the suns.  Like with scissors.  You're welcome.

A lot of people tape these to lollipop sticks.  Some people tape them to cut-up popsicle sticks.  I figured I should be able to find toothpicks at the grocery store, but I was WRONG!!!  I've seen them at restaurants, I looked in all of the logical places, but the score wound up Kyiv 1, Sasha 0.  Fortunately, decapitated Q-tips will also do, in a pinch.

Shared on...

Good to be home.

I have had such a stressful whirlwind few days.  On Sunday, I flew to DC for the Foreign Service Oral Assessment - a grueling day-long series of exercises and interviews that is the final step in the selection process for Foreign Service Officers (ok...not counting security clearances and all that).  I won.  So in a few months, barring some unforeseen catastrophe, I will begin training to be a US diplomat.  But oh my dear sweet lord, was it ever a long, rough few days surrounding that.

So I've spent the past couple of days at home recuperating.  I've been taking it nice and slow, spending time knitting and baking.  Bread and granola and (not pictured) onion soup and asian-style coleslaw.  Maybe crackers and granola bars today.  And there's a ridiculous bete noire in the fridge, compliments of my husband, who shall remain nameless.

I'm home with my kitties and my person and my kitchen and my yarn, and I'm going to be a diplomat.  Everything is good today.  :-)

The Secret Ingredient is Lurve

The incredible blond lightening bolt turned 9 the other day, and he wanted a Pokemon cake. In addition to the fact that his father, who will remain nameless, and I are broke, said child is allergic to red dye! So it was looking grim.

Then we came up with this. He asked for a lemon cake with strawberry icing - easy, just add lemon juice in place of vanilla to a basic white layer cake recipe and mush up some strawberries into plain buttercream. It came out pretty much the shade of Mew, so we let our imaginations run from there. The incredible blond lightening bolt came up with pretty much the entire facial construction, and I did the tail. How lucky was it that we had this perfectly-shaped cutting board (which ordinarily looks like a swan)?

Not much knitting at all has been going on, I'm afraid, but I'll update you on that shortly all the same.