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Heart Box of Truffles Cakes It seems to me that everyone has an opinion, whether good bad or indifferent, to all things Valentine's Day.

My personal opinion is two-fold, the first part being that if you have someone special in your life, reserving all signs of affection for one day out of the year seems to be missing the mark a tad.

But secondly (and maybe more importantly) is that using a day to celebrate love, whether it be love of this special someone, love of great friends, love of your life, or love of yourself, is always called for.

Therefore when Valentine's Day rolled around this year, we were definitely celebrating over in these parts.

I'm aware I'm a few days off the calendar mark.  Blame it on a severe allergic reaction that landed me in the ER this weekend (it all worked out not to worry) or my inability to actually post in time for a holiday (I'll never deny being a work in progress).

But these cakes were so much fun they were worth sharing regardless.

And truthfully a heart shaped truffle cake is just as well received on February 18th as on February 14th in my life.

For whatever love you choose to celebrate.

Worth the little bit of extra effort.

But then again, most love is.


Servings: 2 cakes

** These cakes can be kept as simple or elaborate as you'd like.  Whether boxed mixed or from scratch is more your speed, go at it.  You've got this.

- Either box mixed cake flavor or choice (or any cake recipe suitable for 2 9-inch pans)
- Either 2 (12 oz) cans frosting in any flavor or batch of any flavor frosting suitable to 2 9-inch cakes
- Fondant of any color (store bought at craft stores or homemade)
- 6-8 oz chocolate of any kind
- Any sprinkles/decorations you'd like (a good basic mixture is 4 different types to get the truffle box look, but really 1 kind is fine too!)

Bake cake mix in 2 9-inch circular pans as directed.  Let cool completely.

Using the circle as a guide, cut heart out from each cake.  Save pieces of cake cut from sides in a medium bowl.  Using a long serrated knife, cut each cake in half to form two layers. (Don't worry if it's not perfectly straight, icing fixes most mistakes!)  Fill each cake with icing and then cover top and sides of each cake with icing.  Save remaining icing.  Roll fondant out into 2 approximate 12-inch circles.  Cut hearts slightly larger than each cake out.  Place each cake on top on fondant heart.  Roll out more fondant to 2 approximate 15 inch circle and lay both circles over top of cakes.  Smooth over top and down sides, trimming to meet the base at the bottom of each cake.  Use remaining fondant to roll out rectangular strips slightly larger than height of cake.  Wrap around sides of cake, using slightly dampened hands to adhere if necessary and trim if there is excess when it meets around cake.  Smooth and refrigerate cakes.

Using a fork (or clean hands) crumble remaining cake pieces to small crumbs.  Mix in remaining icing, a little at a time, until cake mix comes together to form balls.  Line a baking sheet with wax paper and make 12-15 truffle sized cake balls and place on wax paper lined sheet.  Store in freezer.  Line up 12-15 mini muffin or truffle liners (smaller than a cupcake liner) and place chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water (making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl).  Melt chocolate over low-medium heat and dip each cake ball in chocolate (using a fork).  Tap off excess and place back on wax paper lined sheet.  Top immediately with desired sprinkles.  Continue with all cake balls until finished.  Return to freezer until chocolate has hardened.  Place "truffles" in liners and place on top of cakes.  Keep refrigerated until serving but allow to sit out at least 20 minutes before cutting.

Recipe adapted from:  Woman's Day