Happy Valentine's Day!

Now, I claim not to be a huge fan of this Hallmark holiday. I do admit, I think it's a little bit of a waste of money. You don't need to buy me jewelry or roses, or take me to a fancy restaurant to show me you love me....I won't say no to chocolate though. =) Despite my slightly negative outlook on the holiday, I was SO excited to make goodies this year! I went all out, making cookie boxes for my neighbors (and boyfriend), and providing the extra cookies for my mom's Valentine's shindig with her daycare kids. Here's the end result:



I know they look like a pain in the butt, but they were actually really simple. I got the idea to do the heart from Bake at 350 (of course), and it was a lot easier than I had anticipated. All you have to do is print out whatever image you want in the middle of your cookies, place a piece of wax paper over the image, trace it with some melted candy melts, and add the sprinkles to wet chocolate. Pop it in the freezer for a few minutes, and BAM! You have a perfect chocolate little design for your cookies. After you ice your cookies you plop the design into the wet icing and that's it! So simple! I've seen it done for baby shower cookies, with little chocolate monograms in the center, and I think this is such a clever and cute idea! Here's the cookies in their packaging, ready to be given out:



And since one of the daycare kids is allergic to eggs and nuts, and since my cookies contain both eggs and almond extract...the poor kid couldn't have one of my cookies. My mom purchased some rice crispy treats and I decorated it for him. He really loved his special treat (kids just love treats with their names on it, who knew?), and I was happy to make it for him.





So you see the reason for my excitement? And this is only HALF of it! The other half is yet to come. Soon though, I promise. Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day!