Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I've always loved this day, even when I was single, because personally, I think its a day to show your love to all your loved ones, not just your significant other. I always made treats and exchanged Valentines with my closest girl friends.

I started preparing for the fun of Valentine's Day this year with a cute heart manicure. On gray nails, I just used a toothpick to drop two droplets of red nail polish on my nail and dragged them diagonally to connect them and form a heart.

This year, trying to avoid the dinner crowd and boring prixe fix menus, my boyfriend decided to make me dinner at his house. I decided to make the dessert to finish off our dinner. I took a small shortcut by buying this yummy chai tea latte cake mix from Target. It tastes so authentic and has little cinnamon chips incorporated in the batter to give it something special. It also includes mix for the vanilla frosting.

I added my own touch by baking them in Valentine inspired cupcake papers, sprinkling on heart shaped sprinkles, and creating chocolate garnishes to top them off. To create the garnishes, I melted milk chocolate in the microwave in a squirt bottle, mixing the chocolate every 30 seconds. Then using the squirt bottle, I piped different shapes the and word "Love" on wax paper and let it cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes. They slide right off the wax paper and can be secured on the cupcake with the frosting.

Even though our dinner was at home, I still wanted to doll up for the evening and I picked a special outfit for the occasion...red being the theme of the day and all!

Top: Zara
Skirt: H&M
Shoes: Steve Madden
Jewlery: Levik's Jewelers and Swarovski

I picked out the perfect card too...Target is my go to store for any holiday.

Now for our dinner...I'm so happy to say that my boyfriend actually used one of my blog recipes, Pesto Linguini for one of our dishes. See fellas? You too can impress your girls with my recipes! He also added his own steak recipe to the menu, which was delicious. Food is great, but the presentation of the table was even more great.

Chef Seto.

Folks, this just goes to show that Valentine's Day doesn't have to be a day of emptying your wallets. A personal touch and handmade food/gifts can make your night special and meaningful. I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day whether or not you are with someone special. Valentine's Day is about love, and everyone can experience that. 

Valentine Mocha Cupcakes.

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays out of the year. Most people associate Valentine's Day with romantic relationships, boyfriends, girlfriends, but I like to associate it with a day to express love to people you love most...not solely restricted to a romantic interest or spouse. For that reason, I wanted to do something special for not only my boyfriend, but for a few loved ones, so I made some delicious Valentine's cupcakes!

I tried something new and added some coffee to my cakemix to create a mocha cupcake. I also took a crack at making chocolate buttercream frosting from scratch and it turned out great. Recipe follows...

It is imperative to sift all the dry ingredients to insure there are no lumps in the mix.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant espresso granules to 1 cup of brewed coffee to get a mocha flavor.

The finished cupcakes decorated with candy heart and chocolate chip X's and O's.

I bought some pretty pastry packaging from Michael's and gave a box each to my boyfriend, my best friend, Natalie, and my mom.

MOCHA CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 3/4 cups of cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup of freshly brewed coffee
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant espresso granules 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and mix until combined with a spoon, a hand mixer, or electric mixer.
3. In another bowl, mix buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
4. With a mixer on low speed, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
5. Add the 1 1/2 teaspoons of espresso granules to a cup of hot coffee and stir to combine. With the mixer still on low, add the coffee mixture to the batter and stir to combine.
6. Distribute the batter into prepared cupcake tins.
7. Bake for 18-22 minutes until cake tester comes out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes then remove from the tin and let cool completely on a cooling rack. 

*Note that the batter will be a bit runny, but this is perfectly fine.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a pound of bittersweet chocolate
• 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate
• 2-3 egg whites, at room temperature 
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3/4 pound of unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder dissolved in 1/2 teaspoon of water

Directions:

1. Chop the chocolates and place in a heat proof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.
2. Place the bowl of egg whites over the pan of simmering water and heat until warm to the touch, about 5 minutes.
3. Mix the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for 5 minutes, until the mixture holds a stiff peak. 
4. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time, while beating on medium speed.
5. Scrape down the bowl and add the melted chocolate, vanilla, and espresso and mix for 1 minute until the chocolate in completely blended in. If the buttercream seems very soft, allow it to cool and beat again.

Voila!

Valentine's Day For Him.

To my readers, my apologies for being MIA on this blog lately. I had been feeling a lack of inspiration, but I'm back now with more restaurants, ideas, and recipes to share with you! Beginning with this one...

So last year, I wrote a post about fun last minute Christmas gifts to get for a girl, so I though I would do something similar for Valentine's Day this year...but for the men! Who says a lifestyle blog can't appeal to both genders? For the special guy in your life (or you trendy men), these are some gifts I think a wide range of men would love to receive. Some of these are staple items that men need, and others are some really cool additions to his trend collection. My personal favorite gift is the Art of Shaving shaving kit.

1. John Varvatos Belt
2. H&M Leather Desert Boots
3. John Varvatos "Vintage" Cologne
4. The Art of Shaving-The 4 Elements of a Perfect Shave
5. Hugo Boss Tie Clip
6. Emporio Armani Sunglasess
7. Zara Retro Print Boxers