Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day isn't a very big deal in our house.  Most of the kids have outgrown the Valentine celebrations at school, so I'm not preparing treats to send to school, or sitting for hours watching them painstakingly write out Valentines for their classmates.  Truth be told, I sort of miss all that.  So I decided that there should be a little something pink to greet them in the kitchen when they woke up.

And hearts, lots of hearts.

The cake is the Sweet Soft Cherry Bread with Cherry Almond Glaze from Averie Cooks.  It turned out pretty good, although hers is much prettier than mine.  The almond and cherry flavour is fantastic.

The heart garlands came together easily.  Each heart is three folded hearts glued together, with string running through the centre of each heart to connect them.  I used these printable heart images.

All in all, pretty simple.  Some hearts, a pink cake.  They will always be my Valentines, after all.

Almond Cherry Loaf

Ingredients

One 10 oz. jar maraschino cherries

2 tbsp white all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cup white all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup reserved cherry juice

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze

1/4 cup reserved cherry juice

1 tsp almond extract

Approximately 1 1/2 cups+ confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray two 8x4-inch loaf pans with floured cooking spray or lightly grease and flour the pans; set aside. Recipe may be baked in one 9x5 pan, as 4 mini loaves, or as muffins. Adjust baking time accordingly.**

Remove cherries from jar and place on a cutting board.  Blot with paper towel to dry slightly, then roughly chop them.  Don’t discard the cherry juice, you’ll need it!

Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons flour (prevents them from sinking during baking) and toss to coat evenly.  Set aside.  

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 3/4 cups flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk together.

In a small mixing bowl, combine eggs, oil, all the cherry juice from the jar except 1/4 cup to be reserved for the glaze, almond and vanilla extracts.  Whisk together.

Pour wet mixture over dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Batter will be thick.  Do not over-mix.

Lightly fold in the chopped cherries.

Pour batter into the prepared pans, smoothing the tops lightly with a spatula.  Bake for about 40 minutes, or until bread is domed, set, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Allow bread to cool in pans on top of a wire rack for about 15 minutes before removing and allowing to finish cooling completely on rack. While bread cools, make the glaze.

Glaze

In a medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup reserved cherry juice, almond extract, about 1 cup confectioners' sugar, and whisk to combine until smooth and satiny.  Continue to add sugar until desired consistency is reached. Glaze the bread just before serving.

**Click here for a pan size baking conversion chart.

Thank you for featuring me!

    

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