Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you're doing something fun today, like eating chocolate.  :)  This past month I've been trying to get over my "fear" of messes and let my son experience a little more messy play.  The absolute disaster zones that he creates just during mealtime makes it hard for me to want to let him play with something on purpose... but we're making progress.

Anyway, I mention this because earlier this week we made some playdough and mixing all the fun colors inspired me to make a cake.  Yes, it's a stretch, but that's where my mind goes.  haha  We also did an awesome Valentine's craft, but it's Liam's present for Daddy, so I'll have to keep it a secret for a little longer.

This is one of my favorite cake recipes.  It's a very basic recipe that you can tweak pretty easily.  A one layer cake - an everyday cake, if you will.  (stay tuned and you'll be seeing a few of my alterations of this cake later).  Made this way, you have a beautiful white cake, but when you cut into it, it explodes with color.
Valentine Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 3/4 c. butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• (food coloring)
• Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line and grease a deep 8 inch cake pan.

Cream together butter and sugar, beating for 5-10 minutes, to a fine white cream.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time and mix in the vanilla.  Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined.

Divide batter in to four or five small bowls and mix a different color into each bowl.  Drop spoonfuls of the different colors into prepared cake pan.  Use a knife or toothpick to swirl around and even out the top of the cake.
Bake for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours.  Remove and place on a wire wrack to cool.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/2 c. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 c. salted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 - 1 tsp ground cinnamon (to taste)

Cream together cream cheese and butter.  Mix in vanilla and cinnamon.  *Note: start with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and add more if you want a stronger flavor.*  Frost cake.  Enjoy!