Box of Chocolates

 

Ahhhhhh, sweet February, commonly thought of as the month of love. How perfect would it be to offer a sweet box of chocolates to your sweetheart? Yes, I know that Valentine's Day has come and gone, but I still have one more day before it is no longer the month of February and I'm sticking with the love theme until the last possible minute.

I actually made these tasty treats back in August for the celebration of our 15th anniversary. Imagine how hard it is to find pink and red candies and a heart shaped chocolate box in the month of August. The guy at the local candy store finally had pity on me and let me buy one individual chocolate instead of one pound of chocolate so that I could buy a velvet heart shaped candy box.

So what is so special about these chocolates . . . they are cupcakes, of course. The idea is from the book Hello Cupcake which has sooooo many fun cupcake ideas. Since my husband is not a huge fan of chocolate I decided to make the mini cupcakes using a yellow cake mix. The back of the book has several different recipes for homemade cupcakes as well as ways to spruce up boxed cupcakes. I used both dark chocolate and milk chocolate frostings. The dark chocolate frosting was warmed in the microwave to make it look more like a ganache and then the edges were rolled in colorful jimmies. The milk chocolate frosting was smoothed over the top of the cupcakes and then large marshmallows, cut in half and then dipped in dark chocolate, were added to the top and then swirled with milk chocolate or vanilla frosting.

These were so fun to make and I enjoyed seeing my husband's face when he saw these sitting on the table the next morning. Don't you love it when you are able to do something that comes as a complete surprise to the recipient.