Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Easy Valentine's Day Treats












'I Love You' French Toast.

2 eggs, 1/4 cup milk, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 6 slices of stale bread, 1 teaspoon of margarine, 1 teaspoon of orange zest.

Lightly beat the eggs, mix in the milk, cinnamon, and orange rind. Heat margarine in a large frying pan. Dip the slices of bread in the egg mixture and fry on both sides until golden brown.

I like to make a smiley face with a thin slice of orange on a piece of toast, and two eyes made of raisins. You could use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make a heart shape by sprinkling sifted icing sugar or castor sugar inside the perimeter of the cutter on top of a slice of toast.


Message Cupcakes

cupcake mix ingredients, heart shaped candies, marshmallows.

Simply prepare your usual cupcake recipe, or if you need a timesaver, I love Green's or White Wings packet mixes, you can get Pink Ribbon fundraising cakes from the supermarket that are a vanilla cake with pink frosting, ideal for Valentine's Day. Make the cakes, and when you frost them, apply those little heart candies, the ones that say things like 'be mine', or 'true love', etc, if they seem to be dissolving into the icing, you can wait to apply them until you are presenting them to the recipient, or try resting the heart candy on top of a marshmallow.

Marshmallow Necklaces

packets of marshmallows (pink and white ones for contrast), a clean sewing needle, cotton thread.

If you have ever strung popcorn onto strands of cotton for Christmas, then you know what to do, simply pass the needle through the centre of each marshmallow to make a necklace, I like to do this for children.

Easy Paper Mosaic Heart Card

I use one sheet of A4 cardstock, and shreds of high gloss magazine paper from adverts that have large sections of space without print, my card (at top of post) uses tones of aqua and purple shredded paper, but you could use all pinks, reds, or rainbows of colour as you prefer. Tearing the paper into pieces gives the heart a patchwork look, like a mended broken heart, cutting the pieces with scissors is neater but doesn't have the same folk craft effect.

Draw or trace a heart shape on the card stock (folded in half to make a card) and then randomly attach the pieces of shiny paper using glue, Uhu gluestick is good because the paper doesn't get too moist (moist paper shows print from the reverse side). This is one of the most economic card projects I have ever completed and is easy for children to do for their parents, grandparents, or friends.





Embellished Gift Boxes

I buy very cheap boxes at Spotlight, and then I decorate them myself, this box, given to a dear friend, has a gold filigree glued on with stainless adhesive, then a metallic dragonfly charm glued diagonally over the filigree. The box suits any gift from a truffle or rumball, to a shell, blossom, cyrstal, or jewellery.


I hope you have some lovely plans in mind for Valentine's Day, remembering that it is the thought that counts, and it is a great day for finding out that you are thought of. Tell anyone, friends, family, partners, just how much you love them. The message is free, and it doesn't get easier than that.
Love, Starry

7 comments:

diane b said...

You have some great ideas here.Thanks for visiting.

Cheryl said...

Starry, can you believe I am having trouble leaving a comment.

Just to say I have been here and will be back

mandy said...

Finally I have found you....
More great ideas as always....
Hope everything is well on your side of the world...xxx

Cheryl said...

Starry, I love French Toast. Must think about making some for myself as I normally eat it when I have breakfast out...

Starry said...

Hi Diane, hope you are having a great day, when is the next birthday for B-Bear? I am dying to see the next outing.
xxx Starry

Starry said...

Hi Chez,

it is funny you just said you had trouble leaving a comment as I just couldn't leave one on Mandy's about the Valentine hoax message etc.
I am sorry to say I don't make french toast very often nowadays, but I do still make pancakes with lemon and sugar.
Happy Valentines Day, friend, (for tomorrow)xxx Starry

Starry said...

Hi Mandy,
I am glad to see you have popped in, I have just read about your Valentine from Telstra, unfortunatley couldn't comment but I think it was because I was in a lesser window at the time. I have been sucked in by Vodaphone over the years, and also by a 'winning' scratchie I got in a magazine, which told me to text to claim my prize, the fine print told me 'this is a subscription service' cost of $10 a week, oh, some prize!
Happy Valentines Day for tomorrow, hopefully you will get a real show of love, even a simple I love you, would be nice!
xxx Starry