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Valentine Fun

Every year at the beginning of school, parents are asked to help or volunteer (if possible) for one of the holiday parties: Halloween, Christmas, or Valentine's Day. I always let the girls decide which ones they want me to help with. This year, both decided on Valentine's Day. As a result, we have 52 treats to make plus their own class Valentines and boxes.
Pig and unicorn Valentine boxes

Once I got the note from preschool that Boo was responsible for bringing the "eat at school" snack, I scoured Pinterest for ideas. I gave her the options of:
  • a popcorn, marshmallow, snickers, M&M mix
  • heart-shaped and chocolate dipped Rice Krispie treats
  • heart-shaped sugar cookies
  • chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes
  • strawberry shortcake trifle cups
She (not surprisingly) chose the strawberry shortcake trifle cups. This weekend we worked on getting everything baked and prepared, and on Monday we put it all together. I looked at quite a few different recipes and ideas to come up with our final product.

Ingredients:
3 boxes cake mix
12 eggs
1.5 cups oil
3 cup water
6 packages of fresh strawberries
1 package of frozen strawberries
1 cup sugar
4 large tubs Cool Whip
5 packages vanilla pudding
4 cups milk
50-55 9 ounce, clear cups

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 325 degrees) for a dark or non-stick pan.

2. Use 4 eggs, 1/2 cup oil, 1 cup water, 1 package of pudding, and 1 cake mix to prepare a 13x9 cake. Repeat for all 3 cakes. Let cool.
*We covered ours until Monday.*

3. Clean and slice fresh strawberries. Reserve 50-55 strawberries for garnish. Combine the other sliced strawberries with frozen strawberries and sugar. Allow mix to saturate and flavors to meld.

4. Use 2 packages of pudding mix and milk to make pudding according to the package directions. Refrigerate until ready.

We did all of this prep work on Sunday.

On Monday, we then continued the work.

5. Get out cake, strawberry sauce, cool whip, and pudding.

6. Cut sheet cakes into bite-sized pieces (approximately 20-30 pieces per cake).

7. Set out cups on a flat surface for layering.

8. Place a few pieces of cake at the bottom of each cup, top cake with a scoop of strawberries, add a layer of pudding.

9. Repeat a layer of cake and strawberries, and finish with a dollop of Cool Whip.

10. Top with a plain strawberry slice.

11. Include cute, pink spoons and enjoy! *We had to cover ours to bring to school on Tuesday, so the spoons were added later.* 😉

We created a little assembly line which helped this process go quickly. I was in charge of the cake pieces. Boo handled the pudding, Bah added strawberries, then I finished with layer 2 and Cool Whip. The hardest part of the process was slicing the strawberries. :)

Overall, the treats were adorable and the kids loved them!
Pudding station

Strawberry yumminess

We ran out of room!

Final product 

The girls also had a blast making their own Valentine boxes. Boo didn't need one because at preschool they make Valentines for the nursing home instead of having an exchange, but since big sis made one, she wanted one too.
Bah decorating her unicorn
Boo and her piggy
Valentine breakfast and surprises 




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