valentine – Audrey's 74

Applesauce Cake for Valentine’s

Giulia Doyle — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 13:10:52 +0000

A couple of weeks back I had a bowl full of wrinkly apples that weren’t going anywhere. I decided to make applesauce by simply simmering the cored (peels left on) apples in a couple of tablespoons of water and apple juice until they were soft. Then I ran it through the blender and had perfect applesauce. I had so much applesauce though that I had to think of other things to make – so I made applesauce cake for our dinner guests. It was soft, moist, filled with wintery spices and not too sweet. My kids couldn’t keep their hands off it!

This past week I found a heart shaped cake pan that I didn’t remember I had. So, just in time for Valentine’s Day, I decided to make the applesauce cake again, but this time in little single serving hearts. Not too sweet, but a nice treat for a very sweet day! Perfect for breakfast or dessert. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Applesauce Cake for Valentine’s

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups homemade Applesauce, or store-bought chunky applesauce
Nonstick cooking spray
Confectioners' sugar (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger.
In another bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and honey until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture; beat just until combined. Mix in applesauce.
Generously coat a nonstick heart shaped pan, muffin pan bundt cake pan with cooking spray. Spoon batter into pan; smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (but slightly wet), 20 to 30 minutes for muffins or hearts, 50-60 minutes for bundt cake.
Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes. Turn out of pan onto a cutting board or baking sheet; invert cake(s) onto rack, top side up. Cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving, if desired. I made a heart stencil with paper.

Notes

Adapted from Martha Stewart.

/2015/02/09/applesauce-cake-for-valentines/

Valentine Egg in a Hole

Giulia Doyle — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 11:12:16 +0000

Today I’m sharing a little Valentine inspired breakfast. Fast and easy, but just a bit of added fun because of the heart shaped cut-out. You don’t need much of a recipe for this – just don’t miss the broiler step so your egg sets and you don’t burn your bread.

Valentine Egg in a hole

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1 serving

Ingredients

1 slice of bread (texas or brioche works particularly well)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 large egg
salt, pepper and chipotle chili

Instructions

Set the broiler to low. Punch out a heart shaped hole from the centre of your bread slice with a cookie cutter. Butter both sides of the bread slice and cutout, including the inside of the hole.
Toast the slice and cutout of bread in a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat until golden. Flip the bread and crack the egg into the hole, while keeping all egg white in the hole.
Cover and cook until egg sets - 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Place the skillet under broiler just until the white is fully cooked. Season with salt, pepper and chili and serve immediately.

/2014/02/10/valentine-egg-in-a-hole/

Some great Valentine links

Giulia Doyle — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 10:07:43 +0000

Next week is Valentine’s day. Do you go all out with pink hearts, sprinkles, chocolates and bouquets of roses? We don’t, but we do add a touch of fun and whimsy to the day – be it the Valentine cards we made for classmates (above), a fun breakfast, the chocolate spoons we made last year, or even filling the bathtub with heart balloons.

The cards we made this year were super easy. I used business card paper from Staples and created two designs that will fit in the margins. Then I ran both sides through the printer, tore them apart along the perforated edges and the kids signed their cards and attached a heart chocolate with a glue dot. Not perfect, but simple, fast and not at all messy!

I’ve seen so many great things on the web these past weeks, that I thought I’d share a list of favourites. What are your favourite Valentine’s day traditions?

PS: Don’t forget to enter my blog anniversary give-away. Some great cookbooks, a Chapters Indigo gift-card and other cute things. This give-away closes on Monday!

Valentine Chocolate Spoons

Giulia Doyle — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:07:01 +0000

We like to make something small for Valentine’s Day – something sweet preferably, but also something the kids can make themselves. This year I decided to make chocolate spoons – a great activity – fun and easy to make. I’ve seen a few examples on Pinterest and here. You can imagine that anything involving messy sprinkles will be a hit!

Valentine’s Chocolate Spoons with Sprinkles

You can use any colour plastic spoon you like.
Arrange your spoons on a baking sheet or tray and rest the back of the spoons on spatulas to keep them level.
Choose any chocolate you like – milk, dark, white – I used semi-sweet chocolate I had left over.
Melt chocolate in 15 seconds intervals in the microwave and stir after each cycle. Once you have smooth melted chocolate, carefully add a spoonsfull to each plastic spoon. Don’t overfill to allow room for sprinkles. Once you’ve filled each spoon, go back and smooth the chocolate a little with your spoon. An adult should do the hot chocolate part.
Once all the spoons are filled with chocolate, have the kids gently sprinkle smaller sprinkles over each spoon, then let them add larger ones. If you add larger candy,such as jelly beans, make sure you wait a few minutes for the chocolate to harden a bit, or else the heavier candy will sink to the bottom of the chocolate.
Let the chocolate dry and harden in a cool area. Once firmer, transfer to fridge so they completely harden.

*The baking sheet will catch some of the falling sprinkles, but you’ll find them all over your floors later.

We packaged each spoon into cake pop wrappers available at Michael’s. We attached a sticky label to each package and closed them with decorative tape.

We made some that were very pink and red, and others that included rainbow colours – the options are limitless.