happy valentine's

via

so glad you're mine. I love you jray.

I don't know how bakerella does it

I muster up the courage to crank out a batch of these every valentine's day and every year I say how in the heck does bakerella make it look so easy. dead serious these things are DIVINE, but beware you need about 5 arms and a lot of patience to pull it off successfully. here's a few things I tried this time around that helped:

+freeze cake balls pre-dipping (chilled in the fridge just doesn't cut it)

+set dipped cake balls on drying rack with bowl underneath to catch excess chocolate to prevent pooled sauce on your wax paper during drying

+after another short round in the freezer take out your truffles and decorate them. it hides the messy parts and looks festive. yay!

+do dishes right away, dried chocolate is not fun to clean up the next day (and trust me it will be everywhere) 

+get some pretty packing, pack them up, and give them away before you eat your weight in cake (or half the batch, no one needs 50 cake balls, but it feels like you might in the moment)

valentines for the mail

I've always love valentines day. there's something about the anticipation of something unexpected happening! I cherished making my valentines for my class in elementary school. I even made notes and candy for my friends in jr high and high school, its just too fun!

did you know you can send anything 13oz or less in the mail straight up?

giver's log has a bunch of creative ideas. I snatched-up a stack of boxed valentine candy from target last week-end, whipped up some labels, and made some valentines for friends & fam while watching smash last night (in case your wondering I totally like smash, katharine mcphee has such a great voice) here's the rules for priority postage:

first three ounces: $1.71
each additional ounce up to 13 oz (begins at 4 oz): $0.17

the candy comes conveniently labeled with the weight in oz and I added one for the packaging. easy peasy!