Fortunately, being broke and being a baker are not mutually exclusive...
as long as you still live at home where your parents stock the
pantry. Anyway, This year, I told Steven that I would be baking a gift for Valentine's Day, and I just needed one flavor/ingredient to base my gift off of. He could choose anything, and I am very surprised that he did not choose bacon! Instead, he requested toffee. This was a challenge, since I had never even had toffee
before, much less made it. This was certainly my first little
adventure into candymaking - candy thermometer and all!
After
some hard work, a few burned batches of toffee, and a 7/11 run
for Heath Bars, I ended up with a beautiful batch of Pecan and Almond Chocolate Toffee, and some Espresso-Toffee Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream Frosting. And I couldn't help but
add the heart garnish :)
I got to use so many new, fun ingredients this time around! I received a bottle of vanilla from
the Dominican Republic. It has a
wonderful, almost tropically sweet taste to it. Also, I finally found instant espresso! I've been looking for it for a while, and I think I'll be making a lot of "mocha" recipes that I've bookmarked for the last few months.
The "eyeballs" are red velvet cake with white and red candy coating, an m&m, and a miniature chocolate chip. The pumpkins are chocolate cake with orange candy coating, green candy leaves, and a chocolate "stem."
