Holiday Catch-Up: Valentine's Day

Well, the catch-up game continues. Valentine's Day was pretty low-key this year. Besides getting small Valentine's treats for my little guys, the only other thing that marked the day was that I made a pink hued Valentine's cake.

I pretty much followed the same recipe that I used for the Candy Cane Cake I made in December, but I made a few modifications. Honestly, you could do so many color and flavor combinations to fit as many holidays as you would like. This would be a fun cake for St. Patrick's Day (in shades of green) or it would be cool for the Fourth of July (in red, white, and blue).

Candy Cane Cake aka Valentine's Cake

(my modified recipe is below; if you would like to view the original recipe found on our blog, you can find it here)

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix
Water, vegetable oil, and egg whites called for on cake mix box
1 teaspoon red food color, divided
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (is what I would have used if my son wasn't allergic to tree nuts)

White Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk or water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla, if desired
1 teaspoon red food color, divided

Decoration:

Though I didn't add any decorations, in hindsight, some red hot candies sprinkled on top would have been cute. Or, you could sprinkle some candy hearts on top.

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 for dark or nonstick pan). Generously grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube cake pan. Make cake batter as directed on box, adding almond extract (if desired). Divide the batter into thirds. Pour the first third of batter into pan (white batter). Pour the other two portions of batter into two small bowls. In the first small bowl, stir in enough food color to achieve your desired shade of deep pink. In the second small bowl, stir in enough food color to achieve your desired shade of light pink. Carefully pour dark pink batter over white batter in pan. Carefully pour remaining light pink batter over the dark pink batter.

Bake and cool cake as directed on box.

In small bowl, mix icing ingredients. If necessary, stir in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until smooth and spreadable. Divide into thirds. Using food color, dye icing to desired shades so that you have one third white icing, one third dark pink icing, and one third light pink icing. Spread over cake (starting with dark pink layer first, followed by the light pink layer, and finally, the white layer). Sprinkle crushed or whole candy on top, if desired. Store loosely covered.

Makes 12 servings

Source: Betty Crocker website.

Nutrition information: 240 calories, 8 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 280 mg sodium, 41 g carbohydrate, 0 g fiber, 2 g protein.

Notes: I kind of screwed up on the glaze this time...I added too much milk and it ended up too runny. I always have a problem with that. I had hoped that it would be thicker like the frosting I made for my cake in December. Oh well!