American Flag Cakepops

I have an amazing day job, which is why I haven't been posting as often. And the folks that work in my office, which make my job so amazing, really, REALLY love my baking.  Like, really.  For example, my boss told me, after eating one of my cupcakes, "I think you should quit your job and just bake cupcakes."  Yep.  She told me that.

So, because I thought this would be a fun idea, I made some cakepops, created an American flag, and brought them in for a special fourth-of-july treat.

Yum!

Valentine's Day Spectacular

I am a sucker for Valentine's Day.  I love all shades of pink, red and white.  I love roses and chocolate and hearts.  I have fond memories of exchanging little dime-store valentines cards in school, and I loved Valentine's Day as a teacher.  In high school, one of our senior projects in AP English was to research and present an "emotion."  Most of my friends chose anger or sadness, a few chose love, one even chose "apathy."  I was the only person in my class, and I think one of only 2 in the whole senior class, who chose "happy."  It's just me!

This year, I am eliminating gluten, dairy, eggs, soy and a bunch of other stuff in an effort to curb my allergies.  Luckily, I found several recipes that I could actually make!!!  Aside from the cake pops (which I now know how to make gluten and dairy free) I was able to eat everything I made for Valentine's Day 2012!!

 V-Day Cake Pops!!

 Gluten Free PB Cookies!

 V-Day Whoopie Pies!

 V-Day Peanut Butter Hearts!!

So the first thing I made was with my great friends Ashley and Marlo, cake pops!  I just love to decorate and make random prettiness with my cake pops.  Ashley wants us to focus more on "characters" or a "design" but Marlo and I still love the random pretty, too.  :)

Many times, I post pictures (and link to this blog) on Facebook.  Most of my family (and several of my closest friends) still live in Michigan, where I was born.  I decided to send many family members a "treat" for Valentine's Day, so I set to work.  I saw this idea on Facebook of using the Dove heart-shaped chocolates instead of a Hershey's Kiss on a peanut butter cookie.  I also found a couple of different gluten-free cookie recipes (I just had to use egg substitute) and I knew I had to make this happen!

 The Martha Stewart recipe called for peanuts and mini chocolate chips mixed into the batter.

 Little balls of goodness.

 Here are the deliciously adorable thumbprints.  I made some with dark chocolate since I can't have milk chocolate.

 They all turned out so beautiful - and I heard from several family members that they enjoyed them as well! 

I reconnected with a great friend at the beginning of February who is also doing a food-elimination diet.  She encouraged me to try some gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, yeast-free cupcakes for her daughter's first birthday!  We had a few different recipes to try, and I wanted to make a test batch so we could decide if we liked them or not.  I also wanted to make Steve something for Valentine's Day, so I bought a whoopie pie pan and set to work on my newest creations:

 Here are the whoopie pies ready to go!  I added some red coloring to the pies for Steve, to make them Valentine-y.

 For the "test" cupcakes, I used my ikea pan with it's tall, deep cupcake wells and pretty red, white and black wrappers.

 These are a little cylinders of gluten-free goodness!

 Since the cupcakes are so petite, I added just a bit of frosting on the top - don't these look so perfect for Valentine's Day!  I wish I had some time to add a nice red fondant heart topper, but alas, I do have a day job and lots of other things going on.

 These whoopie pies were perfect for Valentine's Day!

So, who has discovered Pinterest? Well, really - who hasn't?  LOL.  Although I've had an account for over a year, my friends have recently started pinning so I am addicted along with them!  I found a recipe for Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs for Easter, but decided to make some into hearts for Valentine's Day!  I made them with vegan butter and dark chocolate - and have been eating them all week.  YUM YUM!!!!

We had a very sweet-filled Valentine's Day, so now we're back on our winter diet!!!!!