Happy Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day ranks just below Groundhog's Day on my list of favorite holidays.  Don't get me wrong, I love love, but Valentine's Day is so contrived that I see it as the wax museum version of love.  Although I'm normally not prone to displays of Valentiney devotion, this year I took it over the top as my homage to the overinflated testimonial the day has become.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my Valentine's Day cupcakes:

That right there is a dark chocolate cupcake topped with strawberry buttercream (made with seedless strawberry preserves) and a double chocolate pecan brownie cut out in the shape of a heart and dipped in white chocolate.  Here's the play-by-play:

I baked a double batch of double chocolate pecan brownies and cut them out with a heart shaped cookie cutter. 

Next I melted some white chocolate and dipped half of each brownie in chocolate.

Then I frosted the dark chocolate cupcakes with the strawberry buttercream and placed a brownie on top of each. Viola!

*This picture along with several others with this same note were taken well before I ever contemplated starting a cake blog. Expect much better image quality in posts to come!