Will You Be My Valentine?

A tornado of nine giggling, squealing first grade girls descended upon the house after school on Thursday, leaving a chaos of cupcake crumbs, sanding sugars, non-pariels, frosting, stickers, jewels, balloons, streamers and scattered conversation hearts in its wake.

My daughter and I threw a Valentine’s Day party for her friends.

I love Valentine’s Day, sentimental fool that I am. We came up with the idea in the icy, dark depths of January, when we were constantly snowed in and barely able to dig out at times. A blizzard of pink cheer was definitely in order. We decided on card making and cupcake decorating as activities. She and I started by making the invitations out of construction paper cut into hearts and glued onto pink poster board cut to fit some funky lined envelopes I had on hand. She decorated the invitations with foam hearts of all colors and ruby-red stick-on heart jewels for added bling. I addressed them in super-loopy curlicue script and sent them using “Love” stamps from the Post Office.

I should have known at that early point that we’d end up going overboard.

I transformed the dining room into an explosion of pink streamers, dangling hearts and red heart-shaped balloons, then set the table with pink plates and matching heart napkins and cups upon a pink disposable tablecloth. I framed the entryway with a glittery heart garland draped like a giant, metallic feather boa.

My daughter and I made chocolate-covered strawberries, mainly for the mothers to eat when dropping off and picking up their daughters. But they were devoured by all. I also put out some chilled Prosecco (Champagne entails just too many expectations) and foil-covered Swiss chocolate hearts and squares from Rohr for the adults.

With all that melting chocolate laying around, I got a little more ambitious: We used molds to make solid hearts and two-tone roses in both white chocolate dyed pink and dark chocolate. Selections of each were put into heart-covered cellophane gift bags, tied with a frizz of curling ribbon and placed into the larger pink paper goodie bags. I also tossed in a valentine’s candy necklace in each. My daughter begged and pleaded at Michael’s Craft Store to please, please, please buy the glitter heart wands because they were “covered in real fairy dust.” I did, and one went into each girl’s bag as well.

But honestly, the girls did all of the work and filled the bags with their efforts. The cards were a blank canvas, with a pink background and doily edge, and they turned out very well: the girls mainly made them for mainly for their parents or teachers and included lots of hearts, X and O kisses and hugs, and wrote loving sentiments. The girls worked very intensely and quite nicely together, cooperating, politely helping each other when asked, and sharing stickers and jewels. It was really quite sweet to watch.

Then all hell broke loose though after a break, during which the girls raided the princess dress-up chest while I set out the cupcakes and accoutrements. But what a riot!

My daughter and I pre-baked both chocolate and golden-butter cupcakes and turned – seriously - a half gallon of store-bought tubs of vanilla frosting into different colors. The girls got to decorate one cupcake of each flavor. Some had never used a pastry bag before, so there was a learning process and a lot of laughs involved. Cupcake décor included Sweet Tart conversation hearts, pink and lavender M & Ms, Jelly Belly jellybeans in all shades of solid and speckled pink, large heart-shaped Wilton sprinkles, edible pink pearls, a pink red and white non-pariel blend, electric pink, violet and red sanding sugars, Williams Sonoma gold and silver shimmering sugars over from Christmas and – how could I resist? – Maraschino cherries for those who wanted them on top. All were set out in bowls that criss-crossed the table, were shared, spilled, mixed together and eaten out of directly (that was the candy …)

The girls’ super-frosted delectables went into fuchsia and white boxes shaped like Chinese-food containers (thank goodness for the dollar store!), to maintain the integrity of the cupcakes. I suggested that the girls all take one to school the next day as a lunchtime dessert, to be part of “The Valentine’s Cupcake Club.” Within a split second, one girl said, "Um, no" without even looking up, and I was shot down. The others pretty much agreed with the "no." Forty years after I was their age, and Mommy is still a dork.

In the end, surprisingly few of the girls were in sugar-shock, and none of them wanted to leave. That was fine, since some of the mothers lingered over a glass of Prosecco. Thankfully, the mother of one of my daughter’s best friends came over to help with the insanity, and we both needed a glass by the end of the party!

I sent the girls off with their goody bags and their choice of balloons from the house, fed my daughter dinner, cleaned up and nearly collapsed.

But amazingly during her evening bath, my daughter and I started planning her next event.

We can’t wait!

Army of Mice

Am I becoming kitschy in my old age?

Perhaps I’ve just been having more fun with my food lately. First, it was the fish mold. Last weekend, it was an army of mice: chocolate covered strawberries with two beady eyes, jelly bean ears and licorice whip tails. My daughter and I had a heckuva fun time putting the display together as a surprise treat for her nursery school class.

It was just a fun thing to do for Sunday Baking, and I’m still not quite sure how we came up with the idea. But apparently the “theme” conveniently coalesced with the recent curriculum: Ancient Egypt.

While we were dipping and decorating, my daughter mentioned, “Did you know that cats drove all the mice out of ancient Egypt?” She then continued to inform me that cats were revered and celebrated throughout the ages through art, hieroglyphics and bejeweled statues. She is four.

I love that school.

So we put a cat figurine in the middle of the tray for effect when we finished, then laughed and licked all of the bowls and utensils clean.

Tip: I like to pulverize the chocolate either in the food processor or with a mallet to speed (and ease) smooth melting in the scant amount of hot cream used.

Cannoli 18 Ways

I came into cannoli shells last week, both small and large, at 25 cents and 50 cents per box, respectively. There’s nothing wrong with them, the boxes aren’t dinged, nor are they even near their expiration date(s). I suppose the store was just clearing out stock of an item they may no longer carry. So did I ever stock up! Over the summer, I plan to dip some shells in chocolate and fill them with ice cream or sorbet.

But for now, I had ricotta on hand from last week, so cannoli was naturally our Sunday baking project. This recipe will fill a heckuvalot of mini shells, which is good because I have a heckuvalot on hand. This recipe can easily be halved, or doubled if you are baking for an army. And hey, I’m Italian, so I always make enough for an army anyway.

1 pound ricotta cheese, drained (about 2 cups)
Up to 1 cup confectioner’s sugar (I use a generous half; we don’t like them overly sweet)
The scraped contents of half a vanilla bean
Good pinch of fresh orange zest

Blend together all ingredients very thoroughly but gently. Add ingredients (see below) according to your tastes or needs. Spoon into a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip and chill, or chill in the bowl.

Spoon or pipe into prepared shells. I used a large, star tip [6B] on these. As usual, it was nearly impossible to pry it from my daughter’s little hands. Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately. Refrigerate leftovers.

I like freshly made cannoli, so try to pipe filling into only what you’ll need. The filling will keep for up to a week in the pastry bag for future and/or other use.

Divide the filling in half or thirds if you want more than one kind on your dessert tray, or if you simply want to try some variations:

Chocolate chips. Tiny, mini-chips folded into the filling are pretty traditional, then sprinkled on the ends of the filled cannoli. I like to use good quality bittersweet chocolate shavings instead, and usually have a bar on hand. The shavings melt in your mouth.

Citron. My daughter likes this stuff, so I chop it fine and fold it through the filling. I’ll mainly do this during the holidays, when I tend to have those gelled cubes of red, yellow and green-dyed peels.

Orange Zest. You can go heavy on it if you like, keeping in mind that a little does go a long way. Mine this time were quite orangey, a nice surprise and refreshing variation on what can be overly sweet when store-bought.

Lemon Zest. Ditto. You can also add a tiny drop of yellow coloring to help identify the lemon cannoli in the bunch – a pretty touch for Easter.

Nutmeg. Blend a generous pinch of nutmeg and omit the citrus. Nutmeg and Italian just go together, sweet or savory.

Cocoa. Blend unsweetened cocoa powder into the filling for chocolate cannoli filling. Dust with powdered sugar and cocoa powder once filled.

Almonds. Fold in finely chopped, slivered toasted almonds and a touch of almond extract. Sprinkle with slivered almonds to garnish.

Pistachios. Ditto, and dye the filling green – a little dab’ll do you.

What to do with watery filling:

This happens. All is not lost. This is a happy mistake and an opportunity to experiment with a still-tasty filling, just one with a different consistency. Make any of the following and no one will suspect the cream was meant for any other use.

Make choux pastry puffs. Cut them in half, fill the bottom with your cannoli cream, top with a chocolate-coated upper half of the choux, then soak in a mixture of dark rum or amaretto and simple syrup.

Make mini-babas, cut them in half, fill with your cannoli cream, then drizzle the dark rum/simple syrup mixture over the entire batch for Babas au Rhum. Sprinkle with non-pariels. Replace the rum with straight limoncello taken right from the freezer, no simple syrup required. Garnish with powdered sugar and fresh mint – it’s summer on a plate.

I have a wonderful cake pan with an indentation that allows for a filling – I use it a lot in the summer when fruits are juicy and plentiful. Bake a basic sponge (3 eggs, ¾ cup sugar, cup flour), then soak the sponge in your choice of liqueur and simple syrup. Pour the cannoli cream into the well and top with chocolate curls. Or top with strawberries, amaretto-soaked apricots, toasted slivered almonds – your choice.

Slice and/or macerate summer fruit, layer one inch at the bottom of a champagne flute or parfait glass, top with a spoonful of your cannoli cream, and repeat until you reach the top of the glass. Try this with macerated strawberries and a drizzle of aged balsamic atop the dessert.

You could also try to recover the filling by placing it in a double-boiler, adding a tablespoon or two of cornstarch, and heating gently but thoroughly through, stirring occasionally with a spatula. It will still seem watery in the double boiler while warm, but let it cool a bit, spoon into your pastry bag with the tip covered, and refrigerate overnight. The filling should be more solid and ready to go in the morning.

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