Modern Wife

Tag: valentines

  • Lime Candle

    Lime Candle

    I love this! Look at how the light comes prettily through the green lime peel. My daughter came up with this clever little decorating idea of turning lime peels into candles. She must have seen a tutorial on YouTube. The kid loves YouTube tutorials.

    Just clean out the inside part of the peel, leaving the center intact to serve as a wick. Pour a little oil into it. I used safflower oil because that’s what I have here at home. Then light up the wick. It may take a while before it catches a flame. The wick isn’t as dry as a cotton candlewick, so be patient. Once the wick browns it will start to catch a flame.

    Lime Candle

    This would look awesome as a table centerpiece for a romantic candlelit dinner. Valentine’s Day is coming up, and it’s on a Friday! Consider setting your dinner table with one of these. Better yet, float it on a wide vase of water to keep it safe.

    Make lime candles for spring, lemon candles for summer and orange candles for fall.

  • Carrot Cake Pops for Valentine’s Day

    Carrot Cake Pops for Valentine’s Day

    My friend Issa made amazing Valentine’s Day cake pops that inspired me to make my own version, using the Carrot Cake recipe for my breadmaker. Here’s how I did it:

    First, I followed my breadmaker’s recipe book instructions on how to make Carrot Cake. You might remember the disaster the first time I made this. Somehow getting the cake out of the breadmaker pan was tricky. Now I know what to do with my cake should it crumble getting out of the pan.

    Carrot Cake from Breadmaker

    While letting the cake cool, make the frosting. Beat together until smooth and creamy:

    3 oz cream cheese
    3 tablespoons butter
    1 cup confectioner’s sugar

    Cream Cheese Frosting

    After the cake is completely cooled off, crumble it as fine as you can.

    Crumbled Carrot Cake from Breadmaker

    Add the frosting to the crumbled cake.

    Crumbles Carrot Cake from Breadmaker with cream cheese frosting

    Then mix together with a spatula.

    Carrot Cake from Breadmaker mixed with cream cheese frosting

    When thoroghly mixed into a paste, roll the cake into balls and refrigerate for an hour or overnight. If you’re in a hurry, freeze for 15 minutes. But really, in the future I would refrigerate overnight for best results.

    Carrot Cake Balls

    Make another batch of frosting, this time:

    5 oz cream cheese
    5 tablespoons butter
    1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

    Push lollipop sticks into the flat side of the cake balls (the part of the ball resting on the plate/baking sheet will be flat after sitting there for a while). Dip into the frosting fully and decorate.

    Carrot Cake Pop

    Here’s a more thorough step-by-step tutorial on how to make cake pops, which also includes a video that shows how to dip the balls into frosting and decorate with sprinkles.

    And then of course, anyone who makes cake pops should be inspired by the mother of all cake pops, Bakerella. She wrote the book aptly titled, “Cake Pops.”

    Have fun!