Valentine's Day Weekend Rebooted

Last weekend I should have been in Seattle. I should have been waking up every morning to coffee with my Mom. I should have been helping my Dad grill salmon for dinner. I should have been having a long overdue reunion with my best friend at our favorite childhood bakery. I should have been doing a lot of wonderful things. Instead, my flight was canceled due to a supposed "snowmageddon" on the East Coast that dropped a whopping half-inch here in Boston. The happy weekend home that had been planned for weeks was suddenly replaced with a miserable one stuck in Boston. I cried a little. In fact, I cried a lot.

But them my husband and I rallied our spirits, determined not to let one crappy airline's poor decision ruin an otherwise perfectly decent holiday weekend. So we went candlepin bowling with my in-laws (and I miraculously won two out of three -- yay!) on Friday night, and I began dreaming up what to make for Sci-Fi night, now that we were going to be in town. I decided that if I was going to bake the day before Valentine's Day, then whatever it was, it was going to be heart-shaped, pink, chocolate, or all three.

First up were rice crispy treats. I happened upon a bag of strawberry marshmallows while scavenging the Valentine's Day section at Target. I was intrigued. Then I noticed the heart-shaped cookie cutters. I was inspired. I went home and made a pan of rice crispy treats and, once set, popped them out onto the counter and cut them out using my new, fancy cookie cutters. I dipped one side in white chocolate, and finished them off with super cute sprinkles (again, thank you Target). Now, to be honest, I bought these marshmallows because they were pink. I figured the strawberry flavor would be pretty nominal and wouldn't really factor in. Wrong! These puppies are awesome! Yes, it was artificial strawberry flavor, but it rocked. Like strawberry milk rocks. And with the white chocolate, it was divine. Such a simple treat, but with a big pay off.

Next up were cupcake sundaes. I'd seen these little guys on another blog and decided they were too cute not to try. They are really simple, just vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache, whipped cream, and a cherry. I cut some major corners on this one, and they still turned out brilliantly. First off, I used a cake mix. Sue me. It was much faster and they turned out light and moist and full of flavor.

Next, the ganache. Oh. My. Goodness. Where has ganache been all my life? Oh, right: safely far, far away from me! It's amazing what magic a little chocolate and heavy cream can do. I dipped my cupcakes in the ganache while it was still pretty runny, which turned out to be much, much easier than frosting. The final presentation included a quick spray of Redi-Whip (another corner cut) and a cherry. Perfection! I'll absolutely make these again. The ganache was so much better than any frosting--not as sweet, not as messy, and immensely more satisfying. In the end though, I over estimated how much ganache I would need for the cupcakes and was forced to make a difficult choice: consume remaining contents of bowl in style of the Comte de Reynaud from Chocolat; toss remainder down the sink (and break my own heart); or find something I could dip. As much as I preferred the death by chocolate option, reason prevailed and I pulled out the strawberries I'd bought earlier on a whim. Thank God for whims.


All in all, the goodies were well received and will certainly be made again. Dangerous left-overs were driven to friends' houses (as demanded by my husband, who deemed it a "cupcake emergency") and nothing came home with us. So the original plan of baking for others to save my waistline continues to be a success. It was a fine line with the ganache, but willpower prevailed. This time.