Valentine's Day Cake

       Happy Valentine's Day! The day of love and mushy goodness ;) My Valentine bought me one of those really pretty dipped roses from the jewelry store. It has a golden stem and the petals are a blush pink at the tips which fade into a creamy white at the bottom. I love it. He also bought me the entire collection of the James Bond movies on bluray, which translates into having 23 pre-planned dates. So basically, I got extremely spoiled this year! Which is why I have mixed feelings about what I got/made him. See the above picture? That's his present. I know it's the thought that counts, but I still feel a tad guilty not spending more. But that's not the point of Valentine's Day, comparing gift prices. It's about showing how much you care for each other. So when I made this, I was giving him my time, just like he's giving me his time with our future dates. (May I also point out his birthday is in five days and that's where I decided to spend my money this year instead of splitting it between Valentine's and birthday. What's a poor college girl to do?)

*Update* Since I wrote this post I discovered I won a Valentine's Day Writing Contest on campus and received a bit of extra money, yay! So I also bought Up to go with the cake. No more mixed feelings about only having a cake. =)

Valentine's Day Cake

Today I'm sharing more of an idea for a cake than an actual recipe, but that's okay. 

Directions

--Using a chocolate cake mix (shhhhh) make two 4" layers of cake. Or use one 8" pan, but you'll have to cut the layers in half later. 

--Buy a tub of buttercream frosting from your local grocery store (you can make it on your own too if you want). Mine was about a pound. Reserve about 1/2 to 3/4 cup to dye red for piping around your cake at the end. 

--While your cake is cooling, crush 2/3 of a box of Oreos in your frosting. I used a food processor to chop up most of them, but I did a few by hand to give the frosting extra chunkiness. It just made it harder to spread later.

--Using a serrated knife, level out your cake layers. I then took out an 8" cake board, put a little glob of frosting in its middle, then placed the first layer of cake in the center of the board. 

--Spread frosting over the top of the first layer, not doing the sides yet. Then place the second layer on top of the frosted first. Frost the whole thing.

--Dye the frosting you reserved earlier red and put it in a piping bag, using whatever size tip you want, and pipe the frosting around the top and bottom edges of the cake.

--Using crafting wire, poke in the little wires with sparkly hearts taped to them on the top of the cake for decoration.

--Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Baking!

--H