Happy Valentine's Day! - Time to Educake

I know I’m a day late here but that’s ok, there’s no time limit on love! 🥰

If you’d like to skip ahead to information on the cake process, click here but if you’d rather jump directly to the video of the cake being made, click here. If you want to learn a little bit more about Valentine’s Day 💕, keep reading. 🤗

Today’s educake is focused on Valentine’s Day so I did a quick dive into the holiday to see what I could learn. I came across some interesting facts and I’m going to share the ones that stood out the most to me. If you get curious about any of these I recommend checking my sources for more in-depth information.

14 Quick Valentine’s Day Facts:

The origins of the holiday aren’t clear but the general belief is that it developed from both Christian and Roman traditions.
One theory is that Valentine’s Day came to be as a result of the execution of one or more saints, by the name of Valentine or Valentinus, who became martyrs and were celebrated on Valentine’s Day.
Some believe that Valentine’s Day developed as a result of an attempt by Pope Gelasius to replace the pagan festival of Lupercalia which occurred between February 13th and 15th. During this feast, animals were sacrificed then used to hit willing women who believed the act would help with their fertility.
During the middle ages, people in France and England believed that February was mating season for birds and therefore an appropriate time to celebrate love by sending love notes to each other.
Authors such as Chaucer and Shakespeare helped romanticize Valentine’s Day and make it more popular in Europe.
Cupid was originally known as the Greek god of love, Eros.
Gifting a box of chocolate to your valentine was started in the 19th century by Richard Cadbury, of Cadbury chocolates. He knew a good business opportunity when he saw it.
During the middle ages, Europeans would sign documents with an X and then kiss it as a sign of their oath so observers of this act would say the documents had been sealed with a kiss. That’s why “X” means kiss.
Around the 1830s & 1840s something which are now known as “Vinegar Valentine’s” existed. These were mean and offensive cards people would anonymously send to those who they didn’t like. Eventually, they were used against suffragettes as well.
The oldest known written valentine is from 1415 and was sent from prison.
American’s took a little longer to start celebrating Valentine’s Day and it became more widely celebrated as cards were mass-produced during the industrial revolution.
Esther A. Howland began selling mass-produced valentines in the 1840s and became known as the “mother of the Valentine” due to her extravagant cards.
When it comes to cards, Valentine’s Day sales come second only to Christmas.
Valentine’s Day is a very profitable commercial holiday bringing in billions of dollars each year. ($17.6 billion in 2010)

Hope you learned something new today because I definitely did! If you know of any other fun Valentine’s Day facts, please share them in the comments. I’d love to hear them.

ABOUT THE CAKE

I knew I wanted to make a Valentine’s Day themed cake this year, but I honestly had no idea what I wanted it to look like. However, I have a wonderful friend who always sends me holiday cards in the mail and this year’s card was this beauty below. Once I saw it, I knew I wanted to turn it into cake.

Using the card as inspiration, I got to work. I baked 3 pans of vanilla cake and made a batch of my favorite Italian meringue frosting.

Once my cakes were cooled, I leveled, split, filled, and crumb-coated them. Once the crumb coat was set, I applied my final coat of frosting and began painting my cake. I started by carefully painting the red heart. Since I was freehanding it I was worried I’d have a seriously lopsided heart but I honestly don’t think I did that badly.

After the heart, I focused on the flowers. The purple ones were easy but time-consuming. I simply used edible paint to paint a few clusters of dots all over the cake and later I used gold paint to create their centers. At this point, I wasn’t sure if the cake would end up as cute as I wanted it to be but I had to trust the process.

As for the pink flowers, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to make them. I figured using buttercream would be cool but I’d never painted with buttercream so I was a bit nervous. I kind of just got started and hoped for the best. Thankfully, I actually thought it came out really cute.

Looking at my cake I decided I wanted to do something to the top but I wasn’t sure what. I didn’t want to do anything I’d regret later so I wanted to keep it simple and somehow continue the design. I had some extra pink frosting and decided to pipe and freeze some flowers. I was able to create three large flowers which I then, somewhat carefully, placed on top of the cake. That final touch pulled everything perfectly together, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome! I think I did a pretty good job bringing the card to life.

And of course, a cake post isn’t complete without pictures of cut cake! There’s something really satisfying about seeing a slice of cake ready to be eaten.

I was really happy with this cake and my friend thought it looked good too, so that’s a win. Regardless of how you celebrate Valentine’s Day, or even if you don’t, this cake is for everyone–couples and single people. Let’s appreciate love in all the forms we have it from lovers to friends to family. Show them your appreciation by sharing a slice of cake with them!

If you’d like to see my cake come to life, check out the video below: