So many Valentines Day advertisements feature roses, jewellery and perfume and almost always, chocolates. Perhaps you enjoy a dinner in a special restaurant, or new lingerie, or maybe you have your own rituals, or don’t do anything at all! But I’m sure Valentines Day, 14th February hasn’t passed you by, unnoticed.
We don’t do many special things for Valentines Day but I always make a family cake and some appropriate craft project because any excuse to puddle about in paper, glue and paint is a good one!
I began with a few Valentines Day themed cards. I made papier-mâché using scrap paper from the shredder soaked in water then pulped using a stab blender. The pulp was strained and then squeezed as dry as possible before being pressed into chocolate molds and left to dry.
I’d used scrap paper so it retained some print colours. I painted the shapes white. Then I glued the shapes onto stiff card to create Valentine Day cards for the family.
Another Valentines Day treat was a heart shaped apple strudel cake. I knew that any leftovers could be eaten as pudding/dessert with ice cream or cream. I planned to make a chocolate cake, a flavour popular with my family, but wanted to use up some apples in the fruit bowl, so made a strudel batter with cinnamon, stirred through some brown sugar and then added the stewed apple. Finally, the frosting topped with fruit gels in berry flavours. Delicious.
Our final Valentine’s Day treat was Gingerbread Hearts. Delicious, spicy and popular with everyone, they were eaten very quickly. Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe Don.
We all know yesterday was Valentines Day but did you know today is Hippo Day? Hippo loosely translates as River Horse in Ancient Greek. Hippos are the third largest land mammal on Earth. Celebrate by enjoying a mud bath…..or not!