Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm a member of a face painting Google group, and have been for years.  We're very good friends, helping each other with tips, techniques, business ideas and referrals, and meeting to work together, jam, or just hang out.  For many years, we've done a Secret Santa, but this year everyone was so busy during the winter holidays that it was decided this year to make it a Secret Valentine. My recipient was my friend Mike, out in McKinney, TX.  I know he likes and uses our Purity soap, so I sent him a tub and a bar of that. But I needed more. So I made some chocolates!  I ransacked the cabinets, and hit the store for chocolate melts, and came up with some pretty good combos, I think. These little ones are dark and milk chocolate filled with hazelnut.

And these hearts are filled with peanut butter - some crunchy, some creamy.

These pops are red and white chocolate with red sugar sparkle sprinkles embedded.  They came out pretty funky looking.

And these are milk and white chocolate, with pink sprinkles and raisins inside.

I did a bunch of milk chocolate with chopped almonds and pecans throughout.

And last, but definitely not least, dark chocolate with sea salt.

All together and wrapped, it looks like a lot of chocolate!

And some friends liked the look of 'em so much that they ordered some for themselves!  Oh... and Mike got his.  Loves 'em!

Wow.

Several years ago, when I was a much newer face painter, I hired by the mom to work at a birthday party at Anna's Chocolates in Tappan, NY.  It was a great place, where the kids got to make their own chocolate candies and lollipops as part of the party.  I remember the party well, as I was impressed with the shop and wanted to maybe have one of my own birthday parties there... and also because it was a crazy situation where I was hired for "10" kids and 25 showed up.  I had one hour in which to paint 'em, so I really had to race.

And then it left my mind.

Fast forward to last month, when I got a call from a woman named Anna.  Of Anna's chocolates.  It was now 4 years later, Anna no longer had the chocolate shop, but she did have a daughter turning 3.  And the daughter wanted a face painter.

She hadn't kept my card.

She wracked her brain for a day, thinking about it, and actually remembered my name and found me online.  Crazy, no?  Crazy, I tell you.  Wow.  I honestly don't know whether to be more flattered or impressed.  I'm kind of both.

So last weekend, I did face painting and glitter tattoos and face painting at the kiddo's party.  No photos, sorry.  It was fun, though, very nice kids.  And the great idea of having two pinatas, one princess one and one pirate.  Very cool.

I also...

... bake and make chocolates, just not all that frequently. So with my sister's baby shower taking place today, I baked the cakes and made the favors. Three chocolate lollipops in the shape of teddy bears with blocks per person. Why three? Mom and I decided that one looked too small and cheap. So three it was. With 52 guests, that meant 156 lollipops. I did 160 just in case.

The chocolate looked and smelled so yummy while it was melting!

I had 4 of the mold trays, which helped to speed things along a little, but not enough for my taste. It still took hours and hours, over the course of two days.

I used all dark chocolate, as it's healthier and my family prefers it.

Once they were hardened in the proper form, I bagged each one and then tied it with a personalized custom ribbon. The toughest part was the ribbon, honestly. When they're printed, you've got to make sure the text faces the right way. It took some practice.

One of the boxes I had could only hold 106 of the pops, so the rest went into a different box.

Yesterday, it was cake day. I used this pan

to make these cakes

One a yellow butter cake and the other a fudge cake. I torted each so I could fill them with chocolate pudding that I cooked. For the yellow cake, I sliced bananas into the pudding, and for the fudge cake, I sliced strawberries.

One and a half batches of chocolate buttercream and one batch of regular buttercream (dyed lemon yellow and mint green) later, I had two shower cakes, sitting nicely on the cake board I'd covered in gift wrap...

... and a lot of dishes to wash! While I was baking, I thought my least favorite part of baking was greasing and flouring the pan, especially shaped pans like this. Then I got to the dishes, and they definitely win.

The chocolates and cakes were a hit, though. Everyone who didn't eat them at the shower took their lollipops, and both cakes were devoured, not a crumb left. Now THAT is a compliment.