Valentine's Day Domesticity

My sweet husband and I have a Valentine's Day tradition of giving each other handwritten letters and homemade gifts, rather than relying on Hallmark or Godiva.  This year, since I've been gaining confidence in the kitchen, I planned a cake and dinner (in that order, yes).  Mike asked for Moroccan meatballs, which I've made before fairly successfully, and I saw this cake online and decided it would be appropriate for a Valentine's Day celebration.  Our work schedules weren't going to allow us to be together on the 14th; no problem--we'd celebrate when we could be together.  Mike came back from the field for the weekend, but Komo's cooking beat out my meatballs (an obvious choice, I'm just being honest), so we ended up going over to see family for dinner.  But I still made my cake.  (I'll make the meatballs tomorrow after he goes back out and put them in the freezer for when he gets back.)

I used a box mix, since I wanted to try a recipe touted as "The Best Buttercream Ever."  Which, since it uses two cups of shortening and a full two pounds of powdered sugar, had better be good.  (Thanks for the apron, Michelle!)

The result:

 Ok, so not as pretty as the one from the website.  It is a step up from the cookie cakes I made my sailors on deployment (decorated with "Happy Birthday _____" in store-bought icing, from a ziploc bag with the corner cut off).  And I'm slowly accruing the pans, icing bags, tips, etc. to do this stuff the non-Macgyver'd way, so I have hope for my future attempts.

I'm a little embarrassed to show you the close-up, but here it is.

 

My handsome husband (on his laptop) kept me company while I decorated.

I gotta say, it tasted pretty good.  I'm not in love with the icing--it's not good enough to eat in this kind of quantity.  My husband liked the final product though, so I'll call it a win.

I surely do love this guy.