Projects for Valentine's Day

Last night as I'm lying wide awake in bed thinking about the pan of caramel upstairs, my mind began to wander toward Valentine's Day coming up (and on a Monday, puh-leaze!).  Could I use some of my heart-shaped cutters to make cute little caramel hearts?  Indeed I could.  And indeed I did.  I would have preferred a cutter sized somewhere in between the two I had, so that's something to keep in mind when I get to Hobby Lobby.



The wooden tenderizer (which has never touched a piece of meat)

was for pressing the cutter into the caramel and saving my fingers.

 

Little caramel beauties ready to be boxed up.



I also started thinking about some of the cake pieces I had in the freezer.  Yes, I freeze cake scraps.  It's really difficult for me to throw away cake.  I've made cake balls before, but how about making more little hearts out of chocolate chile cake scraps?  So I did.  They're not finished yet. 


All lined up and waiting to take a dip.

 Meanwhile I was also thinking about the strawberry-hibiscus cupcakes with lemongrass buttercream.  They were still sitting boxed on the counter waiting for the requisite number of days to pass before I could force myself to throw them away.  (It's an ordeal I have to work up to.)  Maybe they would make some nice little cake hearts as well.  No, not really.  I even added a little ginger syrup as I was mixing them up.  Didn't help.  So with a heavy heart, it was finally time to send it to the trash.  Experiment status:  failed.  Redemption is needed.