Screw flowers. Valentine's day is for CUPCAKES!

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I have something to confess. Valentine's Day... is one of my favorite holidays. But not b/c I'm a sap. I'm actually not much of a sap at all. You know why I love it? B/c everything's pink. (Yup, it's that easy.) And red & white. AND CUTE. And full of hearts! I flippin' love hearts. You see my logo? Yeah, hearts. Lacey doiley things? Totally appropriate for Valentine's Day. If this was how Arbor Day was celebrated, I'd probably be all about Arbor Day. But turns out, it's Valentine's Day so dang it, I'm gonna embrace it.

Valentine's Day is also a perfect time to promote cupcakes. Everyone's buying random gifty things. It's not like Christmas where you have a list (or I dunno, it may be like that for some people—not me). It's not like a birthday. If you need something, you don't ask for it for Valentine's Day. You just give & get... nice, happy stuff. THUS THE CUPCAKES. They're celebratory, they're cute, they're a delicious treat, & the holiday gives people a reason to order them so really, I couldn't be happier! My Valentine's Day promo is a pretty darn good deal if you ask me. Six cupcakes for $10—you can choose between one of the two flavors offered or mix it up for 3 & 3. This year's flavor options? Red velvet cake with vanilla malt frosting, & strawberry cake with strawberry frosting, then dipped in chocolate.

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This year I had 9 total orders. It's less than last year, but still a good bit of work. Pictured above are the order cards. I had a spark of inspiration one day while perusing the online shop Paper Valise when I saw old-school library cards. Library cards... THAT COULD WORK!! As long as I design my own, that is. But hell, that's not hard! The card could actually have the order on it. I could stamp the date. Mark whether it's pick-up or delivery. Place it in a little pocket on the box, which also gives me a place to put a business card to give people... it's just crazy enough to work! Plus, I get to use that sweet date stamp like SERIOUS old school library style. I feel like I'm back in grade school!

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Below is pretty self-explanatory. It's the naked cakes! Top is red velvet. Bottom is strawberry.

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And here we go. The GOOD stuff. Below are the strawberry cupcakes. They turned out very well, & I was super psyched about how they looked. In my head, everything was going to work. But sometimes what's in your head doesn't match what comes out of your kitchen. That day, luckily, it did. So here you're seeing the strawberry cake, topped with strawberry frosting, dipped in rich chocolate ganache, topped with a very light sprinkling of thin chocolate sprinkles topped with a mint leaf for garnish.

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Next up are the red velvet-vanilla malts! This is one of my personal favorite cupcake combos, if not THE favorite. The pairing is just so classic, but still different b/c quite frankly I'm the only one here doing vanilla malt frosting! And if I'm not the only one, I'll bet you $$ that mine's the best. The light chocolately flavor of the red velvet cake & the creamy, sweet vanilla bite of the malt frosting compliment each other perfectly. SO GOOD. On top is a Whopper malt ball of "strawberry" flavor. I put "strawberry" in quotes because I have a feel it's more the color than the actual flavor that makes them "strawberry."

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The next photo is one of my favorite shots. The image is just so graphic—I really love it. Strawberry on the left, red velvet on the right (duh).

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And here we are! The final packaging. Authentic library card pocket & all. The pockets were purchased from the local United Art & Education. The library order cards were designed by yours truly. When my design world & baking world compliment each other—that makes me a happy camper.

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And there we have it, in somewhat of a nutshell. Now don't you wish you ordered some?? ;-)