Valentine Picture Overload

I'll be honest...I get WAY more excited about baking for valentines day than I do about the "holiday" itself (and I use holiday loosely). Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who spend their whole February 14th ranting on "Hallmark Holidays"...nor have I ever really been bothered by if I have, or don't have, a "Valentine" on this one particular day. In my opinion, every day is more important than how someone treats you this one day. Keep in mind, I write ALL of this while staring at beautiful pink roses...so maybe I'm a bit biased :)


I love Valentines day for other reasons. I love the pink and red color combination you see EVERYWHERE. I love that hearts are surprisingly not tacky for a few days. I love that, at 25 years old, I still get a valentines gift and heart-shaped cookie cake from my mom. I love even more that my mom left me a gift and card in my room EARLY this year since she was in Florida this week. I love that my dad insisted on making steaks for my sister and I last night for our Valentines dinner. I guess I love that Valentines seems to be a reason to celebrate...exactly what we are all celebrating...I'm a little unsure of...but either way, I like it. So I celebrated this year by making TONS of cookies, and a few cupcakes. 


If you've ever had a Hello Cupcake! cookie, you know they are HEAVY. This is why:

I think I had 13 sticks of butter sitting out at one point...and that was probably only half of what I used. Now you know why these cookies are SO good. I did several plates of these...they all looked very similar, so I only took a picture of a few.

These were for my co-workers:

These were for my students:

This was an order...simple...but I really liked them:

Last but not least, this is what I gave as a Valentines gift (to someone who has had so many cupcakes he will hardly eat them). I know these aren't pretty, and I'm not pretending like they are. I tried to add something with the red hot on top...it didn't really work. BUT, these little cheesecake bars are DELICIOUS. One of my favorite recipes.

happy valentines EVERYONE.