The One About the Valentine Candy Huggers

It's Valentine's Day!  Yesterday in school when my students and I were gathered for Meeting Time and updating the calendar, we talked a bit about this celebration.  Not a lot of them had plans because as one of them put it, "There really aren't a lot of stuff for kids to do on Valentine's.  It's really more for adults."  While there is a grain of truth to that, there's no reason for any of them not to feel the love!

A few days ago, I managed to carve out some time to make these Valentine candy huggers for my students.  Oh, how I missed crafting with paper!  I got the idea from Lia Griffith and it was so easy to put together!

What can be more perfect than candies hugged by sweet animal paws?  Enjoy this lovely day and be kind, lovelies. :)

The One That Made Valentine's Super!

Late post, I know!  Thing is, I was out of the country and spent the Day of Hearts someplace else.  Anyway, this is what I came up with for Valentine's Day:

 

Got this nifty idea here.  Hope you all had a super one, lovelies. :)

The One About the Valentine Lollipops

To add to their candy overload, I made Valentine lollipops for my students.

I found these darling teddy bear lollipop covers here and printed them out.

This is how it looks at the back.

I used tape to seal the edges. If your lollipop is small, using a ribbon to close the edges would look really lovely.

There goes the surprise inside!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The One About the Peanut Butter Cups

I love Reese's peanut butter cups so I naturally giddy and excited when I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade peanut butter cups. I made a bunch of them yesterday to give as Valentine presents for my kindergarteners. Now, I'm not really an avid chocolatier (I'd rather eat chocolates than make them, really) so pardon me for the rough turnout. However, I'd say they tasted really good.

Here's the recipe which I got from Have Cake Will Travel:

Peanut Butter Cups

12 mini cupcake liners
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
update: better to chop your own bittersweet or dark vegan chocolate, the PB cups will keep better at room temp
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter + 2 generous T to add to the melted chocolate
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 t pure vanilla extract
pinch fine sea salt [if your PB is already salted, it's optional to add more]

1. Melt the chips in your microwave, keeping a close eye on them and stirring often to make sure they don’t burn. it should take between 1-2 minutes. Add the 2 generous T and stir to incorporate. Give it about 5 minutes to cool down a bit, it’s easier to spread around when not lava-hot.

2. Place a heaping teaspoon of melted chocolate in each mini cupcake liner and spread it all over the place with the back of a spoon. Repeat with all 12 liners.

3. Place the chocolate-covered liners onto a plate, into your fridge, to let it all harden.

4. Meanwhile, stir together peanut butter, vanilla, salt, and sugar. If your peanut butter is anything like mine, it should form a sort of paste that you can start kneading to make sure all gets incorporated really well.

5. The chocolate should be hard by now, so divide peanut butter paste into all 12 liners, pressing down gently to make sure the paste goes everywhere.

6. Top with heaping teaspoon of chocolate [melt it again if needed], spreading carefully so that none of the PB paste can be seen.

7. Chill in fridge for at least one hour, until ready to devour.

yield: 12 “small” cups


I may be a good cook but I was never good at food styling. Haha!


I put the peanut butter cups in clear plastic bags, tied red yarn to secure the openings, and stuck tags I got from Paper Glitter.