Happy Valentines Day!

This is my Dad's favorite holiday of the year... riiight! I don't know how many times in my life I heard "Valentine's Day was invented by Hallmark and florists." Ryan agrees and hey, I'll admit, it's probably true!

But to me, Valentine's Day is an excuse to bake, and that is just what I did.

I had two bags of Betty Crocker Cookie Mix in the pantry -- one Chocolate Chip, one Sugar. So I decided to make them as cookie cakes. I made the dough as directed on the bags then pressed them out into springform pans. They took longer to cook than cookies -- I just kept an eye on them. They came out of the oven very even and wonderfully browned. The chocolate chip one got a tad bid too hard.

Then, I made the best icing ever... Creamy French Icing. We always called it "Grammy's Creamy French Icing" then I found an almost identical recipe on Cooks.com. I guess Grammy didn't create it but it will always be "hers" in my book. I didn't have vanilla and I was short a little shortening but it still turned out sweet, creamy and yummy.

2 tbsp. water
4 tbsp. sugar
2 1/3 c. sifted powdered sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. Crisco
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt (optional)

Boil water and white sugar together for about 1 minute. Mix powdered sugar and egg (this mixture will get pretty hard. Allow water/sugar mixture to cool a little, but not enough to harden. Then add to sugar/egg mixture. (This will prevent the hot syrup from cooking the egg). Stir in Crisco, vanilla and salt until creamy. (Sometimes I use a hand mixer with the whisk attachment to make it extra creamy.)

I iced my cakes with pink and white and of course a huge heart. I will never claim to be a good cake decorator... but that icing sure tastes good!