Valentine's Day Twenty-Thirteen

Valentine's Day is always a difficult holiday in our house. Mostly because my birthday is two days before and Mark has to work hard at making my birthday separate (and great), but recognizing V-day. This year, he had class so it was super awesome (read: lame!). Luckily, it was a short session so we were still able to enjoy dinner together.

I made a baked chicken parm with a hot italian meat sauce on top. We had it when my parents and sister were in town to visit and Mark raved about it. Turns out, Tabitha had more of her touch on it while she was here than I could do on my own! It was good, but she made it great.

I went a little crazy for Mark's gifts, but in a good way! I got him a new tie and cuff links, a few framed pictures, hot sauce from our honeymoon destination, and a homemade carrot cake! The awesome thing about the hot sauce is Mark bought it while we were on our honeymoon, but it was taken from him through security. At the time, he was so disappointed. When he was checking it out he was very curious what it was. Ya know... all, "Gee thanks, hot sauce wearing hats." Once he realized that it was the stuff he had lost in security, he was so happy!

Don't judge how the square one broke.... it's not my fault!!

To make the heart cake, bake a round cake and square cake. Then, cut the round in half. Set up the square in a diamond shape on your cake plate. Place one half of the heart on each upper side of the diamond shape. Bam! Heart cake!

I just made a simple, cream cheese icing. I would have tried to sneak in some store bought icing, but Mark can totally tell. I think it's all of those years of delicious desserts that his mom made him. (Thanks, Cindy... you really set the bar high!) Unfortunately, I didn't have any plates big enough. It was okay, though, we just had some hanging over until we dug into it!

I took a piece of wax paper and cut out a heart in smaller than the actual cake. Then, I sprinkled chopped walnuts and cinnamon around the edges. This turned out to be great. Not only did I like how it looked visually, but the walnuts and extra cinnamon made an awesome crust!

The funniest part of the cake was when I cut a slice for Mark and said, "Awww, you have a piece of my heart!" We're seriously so dorky. Overall, Valentine's Day was great! Just a nice dinner and dessert at home... exactly what I wanted it to be! Mark offered to take me out, but sometimes it's relaxing at home that really does the trick.