Late is still great

 I know Valentines Day was a week ago, but I still want to share something sweet.

My husband and I don't do much for Valentine's Day. He loves me all the time (of course!) and humors my moods, endless projects and everything else our family slides his way. We don't make a fuss about gifts and such for each other except for our anniversary, and Mothers & Fathers Days, and birthdays. We try to celebrate 'us' in the smallest & simplest of ways every day. That gets harder as our family grows, but we love it all. Who can complain about lack of dates when your 3 year old agrees to be your Valentine? Kids make holidays fun in new ways for all of us.

At any rate, we decided to get some couples together for a fun date night. Brilliant idea? Bowling! One couple graciously offered to help host in their new home. Cocktails & appetizers at their home and then on to the bowling lanes. 'Nooter' lovingly divided our group into two teams so that spouses were split, and then gave us each a new nickname. By the way, I granny bowl and I do it well. Well, usually, but not that night.

I made this delicious and pretty treat for our pre-bowling social hour and had to share. It was easy and yummy. Thanks to this blog that inspired me, my friends rolled their eyes at me and called me "Martha". I really think Shayna's (Texas Monkey) are prettier, but I didn't have the time or the budget for chocolate dipped strawberries, nor do I own square cake pans.

Here's what I used:

1 Box of Chocolate Mousse cake mix
(it even comes with the mousse makings). I would love to say I am thrilled that I discovered this wonderful box, but I am not, if only because I now know how easy it is to get a really good chocolate fix from a boxed mix.

2 boxes of these hazelnuts yummies
(or 1 can of the real deal Pirouettes, both available at WalMart)
but I recommend 3 boxes.
They are called 'rolled wafers' in case you need to know.
The reason I recommend 3 boxes is what I won't show on the back side of the cake. I had to piece together the broken ends and it wasn't pretty.

1 lb of fresh strawberries, cleaned, trimmed and sliced in half.






 

Bake the cake according to the package directions, then top with the mousse (which tastes like pudding to me). Break your wafers about 2/3 of the way down and stick them to the sides of your frosted cake. (I purposely broke mine so they would would be varying heights.) Top cake with strawberries and tie a ribbon around the whole thing. Tada. Seriously.
Note: my decorated cake just barely fit under the dome of my cake plate so plan ahead.