Valentine's Day Desserts

I happily accepted the request to make dessert for 60 knowing that my little Valentines would be away traveling for the start of their mid-winter break.  Here is a sampling of the 300+ mini desserts...

Assorted mini cupcakes with buttercream frosting, fruit tarts (not yet assembled with a pastry cream base and raspberry glaze), and petit fours.

I was incredibly busy the night before Valentine's Day trying to get everything ready for my children's Valentine's Day classroom parties and wrapping up the special Valentine's cookies for school and a special order from a friend.  Wednesday night was occupied coaching a 5th grade basketball game.  I had my whole week carefully planned out to fit it all in.  My daughter was asking if we could please go to the grocery store.  I told her I didn't have time.  She asked two more times, and when I figured out why, I told her to get her shoes and we'd go while something was cooling from the oven.  She went in one direction while I grabbed and few things.  She was at the checkout when I walked by (pretending not to see the heart shaped box of candy on the counter).  I heard the cashier ask her if she was buying it all by herself.  She had asked to earn $10 a few weeks ago, and she had saved that $10 to buy me a Valentine.  She knew she didn't have to get me anything, but it was really important to her.  It wasn't so much the box of chocolates that made me melt, as it was the sparkle in her eyes as she so proudly presented them to me.

The petit fours were amazing and frustrating.  I enjoyed every step of mixing, baking and assembling the layers of delicious almond cake with raspberry filling, until it was time to coat the petit fours.  I'll detail in another post, but I decided they were much prettier with the cake layers exposed and I was running out of time.  Nice save and I received several raves.

This is my favorite chewy chocolate cookie sandwiched with a peanut buttercream (the peanut butter buttercream was another save from a buttercream I didn't think turned out so well) - awesome combo:

The cherry bars were also a guest favorite.  My mom has been making them since I was a girl.  I never think to make them because I don't care for cherry filling.

The top tier is chocolate covered coconut candies made with melted Godiva chocolate.  The middle tier is chocolate covered strawberries.  The bottom tier is bite-sized cookie dough brownies- haven't met anyone who doesn't like these brownies.

It was a really nice evening.  I got to see a lot of familiar faces.  Quite a few told me they had no idea I did all of "this".  I laughed and said I do "this" all the time with my daughter for fun, but not quite the same scale.  Some people asked for the name of my business.  I told them,  "...I have a food blog."

By 10pm Saturday night, I realized the only thing I had eaten all day were tastes of the sweets.  It was an exhausting end to a really full week.  The house was quiet and I was alone, but certainly not lonely.  This Valentine's Day more than any other, I felt love bursting through my heart.  I'm doing the things I love with/for the people I love and I feel valued and respected.  I have some exciting opportunities coming up that I can't wait to share with you.  Thanks for following along.