As any Leslie Knope supporter knows, Galentine’s Day gifts are essential. I love hosting friends for parties of any sort that involve eating, so I really miss being able to do that this year. Instead of having friends over for a Galentine’s Day celebration, I figured I’d send the party to them! I don’t give a single eff about Valentine’s Day, but I love sweets, pink & red, and the celebration of every type of love. I took all three of those things and created care packages for some of the lovely ladies in my life.
Keep reading to see what’s inside!
Pink Satin Cupcakes
As I was taking stock of what ingredients we had in the pantry, hoping something would speak to me, I noticed we had a box of Devil’s food cake mix which I used to make cupcakes! We hardly ever bake things from the box (because it takes too little time to be a full-on procrastination activity). But sometimes, measuring out ingredients has minimal joy sparkage capabilities and letting Betty or Duncan do some of the work just sounds so much better.
However, I did a few things to amp up my cupcakes:
- Sifted the mix into a bowl (breaks up the clumps and prevent those awful little pockets of powder—also, my sister is a huge advocate for using a whisk if you don’t have a sifter).
- Instead of water, I added half coffee, half milk (somewhere out on the interwebs I heard about this)
- Used an apple corer (not the kind that also slices, just the stand-alone coring kind) to create a hole to put raspberry filling in!
They were going to be Red Velvet Cupcakes, but I forgot to put the dyein…kind of a crucial ingredient. Instead, I added some color to the cream cheese frosting and am calling them Pink Satin Cupcakes? I’m workshopping the name. One thing I learned on this journey was that cream cheese frosting does not behave like buttercream. Buttercream holds it’s shape, whereas this cream cheese frosting did not unless I kept it in the freezer between every few cupcakes. I was excited to get fancy with my Wilton tip set, which I still did to a certain degree, but there was almost no point switching out tips. But you know what? They taste frickin amazing.
TIP: For shipping purposes, I used popcorn in place of packing peanuts to keep the cupcakes from sliding and smushing into one another (you know how those pesky lil guys can be). This way there wouldn’t be any mystery chemicals bopping around in the box.
Sugar and rose scrub:
The second item in my care package was a rose and sugar scrub. This recipe takes no time at all and you can find the recipe in my DIY Self-Care Kits. This rose scrub feels way too luxurious to only take about 15 minutes including set up and clean up.
Chocolate lollipops:
There’s a little bakery in the area that is run by the loveliest nuns. Going in there feels like a warm hug and all their confections are equally as comforting. Since I already had baked for the package and shipping croissants cross-country wouldn’t do them justice, I got each of my friends a chocolate lollipop.
I love you because slips:
I found these adorable takeout containers at Michael’s and was at a loss for what to put in them. Finally I realized I didn’t have any sort of ~love note~ in the box! I used a paper cutter to create several slips of paper which all read “I love you because:” and one of the many reason they’re wonderful. As I filled the mini takeout containers with the strips, they sort of reminded me of fortune cookie slips (only without the vague non-advice).
Making these Galentine’s Day care packages for my friends was such a fun way to spend my weekend. I hope that you gathered a little inspiration for your own Galentine’s gift!
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