Valentine's Day

I know that it has been over a week since Valentine's Day but I really wanted to write a post about it since it was mine and Matias' first together as husband and wife. We each really wanted this year to be special because of it being our first as a married couple and also because we always seem to have bad luck on Valentine's Day. (Something would always happen every year to kinda ruin it for us.)

Since I wanted to do something special I of course went to Pinterest for ideas! Matias loves red velvet cake (flavor of his grooms cake) so I decided to start off by making him a cake and happened to find a heart shape springform pan (on sale at TJ-Maxx). 

Red Velvet Cake

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder 
• 1 1/2 tbsp liquid red food coloring
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your 2 cake pans. Then sift flour and salt together and set aside for later. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar together and mix until light and fluffy. 

Add each egg one at a time and mix well. Add your flour and salt mixture to the bowl along with the buttermilk but alternate between the two, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add in your vanilla and mix together.

In a small mixing bowl, mix your red food coloring and the cocoa power together until a paste forms. This will give you the bright red color you want for your red velvet cake instead of it looking brownish.

Add the red mixture to the sugar and butter mixture and mix well. In another small bowl, stir together the baking soda and cider vinegar and pour into the batter immediately. Blend on medium-high until batter is consistent. 

Spoon the batter evenly into the pans and level off the top of the batter with a spatula. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cake springs back when pressed in the center.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 - 8oz packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4-5 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)

In a large mixing bowl beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Gradually pour the sugar into the bowl and mix on low. Increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. If mixture looks too thick you can add milk to loosen in and if it is too think just add more powdered sugar or put in the refrigerator to let it firm up.

After the cake cools you can decorate it. Sorry that it doesn't look like a heart anymore. :(

On actual Valentine's Day Matias and I went to Cafe Excell for dinner and had a great time there and we exchanged presents at home. He got me some Dove chocolates and this beautiful painting done by a friend of ours, of me in my wedding dress. She did it in water colors and it is absolutely amazing. For his I got the idea off of Pinterest to do the deck of cards with 52 reasons why I love him. He loved his present and thought that it was so special. I do believe that this Valentine's Day was our best yet!