My Valentine’s Day Celebration

We spent Valentine’s Day skiing, enjoying chocolate cupcakes, and making valentines for family.

Our days skiing are quickly becoming one of our favorite family traditions. We spend several hours skiing with Alex, take a few solo runs ourselves and then stop for dinner (usually pizza) on our way home. 

It is just about trying to have a good time. We don’t push Alex to take more runs than he wants. If he wants to stop and get a giant pretzel with cheese sauce, we do so. We want him to enjoy the ski outings, so hopefully he will enjoy skiing one day. 

Fresh snow. 

Because the lift opens at 3pm, we spent the morning making chocolate cupcakes, which were amazing! These were the same cupcakes I made for Alex’s school Valentine’s party. The recipe is from a blogger I follow (see below)—it is one of the best (and easiest) chocolate recipes I have used. When we got home from skiing, we had chocolate cupcakes to enjoy.

My little helper in his valentine outfit.

 

Sampling the frosting.

The finished product. 

 A few days before, we made valentines for our family. I cut out pink hearts from card stock, then Alex left his footprints in red paint on them. We wrote, “From the bottom of my heart to the tips of my toes, I love you.” He had a blast putting his feet in the paint.

It was a wonderful Valentine’s day!

Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

1/4 pound (1 stick) of unsalted butter

1 cup of sugar

4 extra-large eggs

1 16-ounce can of Hershey’s chocolate syrup

1 tablespoon of vanilla

1 cup of all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin pans with 18 paper liners.
• Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the chocolate syrup and vanilla. Add the flour and mix until just combined.
• Scoop the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 30 minutes, or until just set in the middle.  Let the cupcakes cool thoroughly in the pan.

Chocolate Frosting

INGREDIENTS

½ of stick butter

¼ of cup of milk

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

2-3 cups of powdered sugar (desired consistency)

DIRECTIONS

• In a microwave safe measuring cup, heat butter and milk in the microwave until butter is melted. 
• Add cocoa and heat for 30 more seconds, stir vigorously when it comes out to break up any lumps of cocoa.
• Stir in powdered sugar, starting with one cup at a time, then add more if you'd like it to be thicker.