Happy Valentines!

We showed H. her pockets a few weeks ago when it was cold out.
She just thinks it's the coolest thing to walk around hands in pockets.

We got a kick start last Friday by celebrating with a playgroup V-Day party.
The kids exchanged cute little cards and candy, decorated cookies and bags.

Hayley loves to do "touchdown!" She gets excited and throws her arms up. So cute.
This is (one of) her Valentines shirts- I freezer paper stenciled two robins and a heart. I thought the paint I got was going to be red, but turned out to be the brightest pink I've ever seen, so I mixed it with some white. I didn't realize the white I have has glitter in it! So it turned out a little sparkly :)

I have never been a huge fan of frosting, so sugar cookies have never been #1 in my book. But I thought I should give it a go, it's Valentines after all?! I did a thick chocolate first, which was fantastic and then a simple buttercream in purple.
For those who know me well, no I have not converted into a purple loving person. I just think we had enough pink going on already for this holiday. :)

Not a great picture, but hey, she never stops moving!
Just this week she has started putting on her rain boots by herself!
(Skyler got Hayley and I matching polka dot boots for Christmas)

Yesterday my friend came over and I helped her make a real torte.
Which I was somewhat frustrating in the preparation.
She asked me a few months ago what the difference between a cake and a torte was and I wasn't sure. So I researched a little and found that a torte has little or no flour and uses ground nuts in it's place.

I went to my Professional Baking book to see what it had. Nothing that totally fit the description. I checked all my other books and nothing. We ended up making pecan paste (like almond paste that you can get at a specialty store.) We used a french Genoise recipe using the chocolate variation as well as the nut paste variation.

I was crossing my fingers that with so many changes it would turn out.
(Also the factor that I haven't made a traditional french cake since I was at Culinary school, 5 years ago)

The layers baked up nicely considering Geoise doesn't use a leavening agent like yeast or baking soda/powder, it relies on whipping the eggs in the batter for 15min on high until it's pretty fluffy and then carefully folding in the flour.

We layered with chantilly cream (sweetened whip cream) and frosted with chocolate buttercream.

I haven't actually tried it yet, because I didn't want to make her cut into it before she took it home for her own celebration. But she promised me a piece later :)