We think Valentine’s Day is one of the sweetest days of the year. It’s a day to celebrate the ones you love, whether they’re your best friend, your mother, or your sweetheart. We’ve put together a Gift Guide so you can make your own Valentine’s gifts for all the dear ones in your life. Let the labour of love begin.

Old-fashioned Vanilla & Brown Sugar Scrub

Whether it’s for your mom, best friend or significant other, this sugar scrub uses all natural ingredients to leave skin feeling soft and touchable.

What you’ll need:

• 1 cup (250 mL) Redpath Dark Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tsp (5 mL) Pure Vanilla
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) honey (optional for dry skin)

What to do:

1. Mix olive oil and vanilla.
2. Add sugar (and honey) and mix well.
3. Transfer to a mason jar or container of your choice and personalize.

Crafty Tips:

We used a mason jar to store our sugar scrub. Mason jar lids are easy to decorate because you can place any fabric or paper between the inlay and the outer screw top. We created our own labels out of a pretty textured paper and rub on lettering that we found at a craft store.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Nothing tastes better than real cocoa in your chocolate milk. Once you try this homemade syrup recipe, you’ll never buy pre-made again. It’s quick, easy and delicious, put it in chocolate milk or drizzle it over ice cream.

What you’ll need:

• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) Redpath Granulated White Sugar
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup (250 mL) water
• dash of salt
• 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

What to do:

1. In a small saucepan, add sugar, cocoa, and salt.  Whisk together gently.  Add water.
2. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.
3. Reduce heat and cook 1 minute.
4. Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Cool.  Store in the refrigerator.

Crafty Tips:

We found a small vinegar bottle at a dollar store that we thought would be perfect for the chocolate syrup. Then we made a cute little personalized card and attached it with string with two straws. Sharing this chocolate milk with someone special will make you feel like a kid again.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

These brownies are the perfect amount of sweet and the colour is so fitting for Valentine’s Day. Give these to your loved one with a message of your own and you’ll be more loved than ever.

What you’ll need:

Brownies:

• 1/2 cup (125 mL) butter
• 2-oz (55g)dark chocolate, coursely chopped
• 1 cup (250 mL) Redpath Granulated White Sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp (7 mL) red food colouring
• 2/3 cup (150 mL) all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

Cheesecake:

8 oz (230mL) cream cheese room temperature
1/3 cup (75 mL) Redpath Granulated White Sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla extract
What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter the bottom and the sides of an 8 inch (20 cm) metal baking pan. You can also line with parchment paper, be sure to butter the paper.
2. Melt butter and chocolate together, stir until combined and very smooth. Set aside to cool.
3. Whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla and food colouring. Add the chocolate mixture, stirring until smooth.
4. Add flour and salt, stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly.
5. Now to prepare cheesecake mixture, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until smooth.
6. Spoon the cheesecake mixture in dollops onto the brownie mixture. Swirl mixture with knife to make a marble texture.
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set (check with a toothpick).
8. Let cool and serve.

Crafty tips:

We used chalkboard paper that we found at an art supply store to make mini signs with toothpicks and craft paper. Make any message you like to surprise your loved ones on Valentine’s Day.

Mug Hugger Cookies

These delicious sugar cookies will go perfectly with your favourite warm drink to cuddle up with.

What you’ll need:

• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) butter, softened
• 2 cups (500 ml) Redpath Granulated White sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
• 5 cups  (1.25 L) all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp (10 mL) baking powder
• 1 tsp (5 mL) salt

What to do:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch (6-8 mm) thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter (we chose a heart for Valentines Day). Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Crafty Tips:

We wanted our cookies to be a cute accessory to a warm (or cold) drink. We chose a cookie that was firm enough to cut a slit in the side to be hooked over the lip of a mug. We think this makes a really nice presentation for tea time.

We had some pureed pumpkin left over from Halloween and thought we should put it to good use. And boy did we ever! These Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies will have you buying pumpkin year round!

First for the brownie batter you will need…

3/4 cup (150 mL) butter, melted

1 cup (250 mL) Redpath White Granulated sugar

1 tbsp (15 mL) vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup (125 mL) all purpose flour

1/2 cup (125 mL) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

1/2 tsp (2 mL) cinnamon

Now for the cheesecake batter:

6 oz (180 mL) cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/3 cup (75 mL) Redpath White Granulated sugar

2 tbsp (10 mL) flour

1/2 cup (125 mL) pumpkin puree

1/4 tsp (1 mL) vanilla

1/2 tsp (2 mL) Redpath cinnamon sugar from the Redpath Cinnamon Sugar Shaker

1/4 tsp (1 mL) each ground ginger and ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350F (177  C). Grease an 8×8″ (20×20 cm) or an 11×7″ (27×17 cm) baking pan.

First we made the brownie batter… yum. The cinnamon really adds a kick to this fudgey goodness!

Beat together melted butter, Redpath white granulated sugar, and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time. Combine dry ingredients in small bowl, and then gradually stir into butter mixture by hand.

Next for the cheesecake… mmmm…

In another bowl, beat cream cheese and Redpath white granulated sugar until smooth. Beat in remainder of ingredients until its all smooth!

Spread about 2/3 of chocolate batter into prepared pan. Then spread the pumpkin cheesecake batter over top! Try not to mix the two, we’re going for a marble effect!

Drop the remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. To make the swirls, run a butter knife back and forth through the pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, ours took a little less time since we used a larger pan. Check on them with a toothpick, when it comes out of the centre clean, you know its ready! Another technique is nudging the pan, if the centre doesn’t giggle, your probably close to being done!

The recipe suggested cooling completely and chilling before cutting and serving. Of course we couldn’t wait that long before tasting these tasty treats. But they do taste even better cooled, if you can imagine that! So just be sure to save some

What you need:

Filling:

2  nine-inch pie plates or one deep dish pie plate

3 large eggs slightly beaten

1 cup of Redpath Golden Yellow sugar (250 mL)

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp. ground cloves (2 mL)

1/2 tsp ground ginger (2 mL)

1/2 tsp. nutmeg (2 mL)

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon (7 mL)

1 tsp vanilla (5 mL)

1 1/2 cups of milk (2%) scalded (375 mL)

Crust:

1/3 cup butter melted (75 mL)

1/8 cup Redpath Golden Yellow sugar (30 mL)

2 to 2 1/2 cups of graham crumbs  (500 mL)

Preheat the oven to 450*F

What you need to do:

For the crust, combine the melted butter and Golden Yellow Sugar in a small bowl; mix well. Gradually add the graham crumbs until the texture is tacky but not very moist. Press the mixture evenly into your pie plate.

In a medium sized mixing bowl add the pureed pumpkin. Stir in the eggs, sugar, salt vanilla and spices. Stir until combined. Gradually add the milk, stirring as you go.

Pour the mixture into the prepared crust. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350* and continue baking for approximately 40 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Let cool. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge if you’re not going to eat this delicious thing immediately!

The Happy Baker’s delicious chocolate cake balls as seen at Canada’s Baking and Sweets Show!

What you need:

For the cake:

2 cups of Redpath Granulated White Sugar (500 mL)

3/4 cup of cocoa (150 mL)

2 cups all purpose flour (500 mL)

1 tsp. baking powder (5 mL)

2 tsp. baking soda (20 mL)

1 tsp. salt (5 mL)

2 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil (150 mL)

2 tsp. vanilla extract (10 mL)

1 cup buttermilk (250 mL)

1 cup boiling water (250 mL)

For the icing:

For the icing:

1/4 cup butter, softened (50 mL)

2 tbsp. cocoa (30 mL)

2 tbsp hot water (30 mL)

2 cups Redpath Icing Sugar (500 mL)

and for dipping:

300 g dark chocolate melting wafers (or milk or white chocolate, your choice!)

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 350*F (175 *C)

In a large bowl sift together dry ingredients. Add eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, and buttermilk.

Beat with a mixer on medium speed for a couple of minutes until smooth and silky.

Stir in boiling water until blended.

Fill muffin tins with batter; bake in oven for 22-25.

To make the icing, combine the butter, cocoa and water. Gradually add the icing sugar until smooth and creamy.

To make the cake balls, let the cake cool completely. When its cool, mush up the cake with the icing in a large bowl.

Form the mixture into 1-inch balls and place on a lined cookie sheet. Cool in fridge completely (few hrs.) before you dip them in chocolate. You can also freeze them. They will fall apart when dipped if not cool enough.

In a small saucepan or using a small double boiler melt chocolate. You need enough chocolate to dip all the cake balls (recipe makes app. 70 cakes balls). I used app. 300 grams of dark chocolate. You can dip the cake balls in stages and melt the chocolate in batches, it thickens as it cools so it is easier to do the dipping in batches

What you need:

1/4 cup butter (5o mL)
2 cups peanut butter chips or 1 300g bag (500 mL)
2 cups of dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips (500 mL)

5 Shredded Wheat biscuits, crumbled
15 pretzel rods , broken in half
Halloween sprinkles

Here’s how you do it!
In a large saucepan over medium heat melt the butter, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. Stirring often. Remove from heat and stir in the crumbled Shredded Wheat.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Break the pretzel rods in half. Spoon a tablespoonful of the mixture on top of one end of the pretzel rod. About 1-inch up the rod. Shape the mixture in the shape of a witches broom. Sprinkle with Halloween sprinkles. Let set in a cool area or in your fridge. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place.

So, it’s fairly obvious that we have a major sweet tooth here at the Acts of Sweetness HQ. We also have a weakness for the delicious combination of chocolate and peanut butter. When Anna came across this recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Crunch Brownies, she just had to try them herself. She had to! So she dropped everything, ran out to grab the ingredients, and started to make these crunchy and chewy delights.

Here’s how!

Ingredients:

- One batch of the brownie recipe that you like the most.  Here’s a link to the recipe that we used, except we modified it slightly, using only semi-sweet chocolate…unsweetened chocolate isn’t really our thing.
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) salted peanuts *although you can leave these out if you don’t have them on hand!
- 8 peanut butter cups, chopped
- 1 1/2 (375 mL) cups of creamy or smooth peanut butter
- 1/2 tablespoon (7.5 mL) unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 (375 mL) cups rice puffs

This is a photo of us making the brownie mix. Look at all that chocolate and sugar! MMM.

How to make it!

1. Make your brownies like you normally would but bake for 5 minutes less. Remove them from the oven and sprinkle the top with the peanuts and chopped peanut butter cups. Return to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes. This is after we’ve sprinkled the peanut butter cups and peanuts on top of the brownie mix. Soon to be put back in the oven!

2. While they are finishing baking, melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in the cereal to evenly coat.

Melted chocolate and peanut butter. HEAVEN!

3. Remove the brownies from the oven and evenly pour the chocolate and peanut butter mixture over top. Spread it around evenly, don’t forget to sample some…

4. Refrigerate for 2 hours before cutting and serving. ***** This didn’t really happen in the Acts of Sweetness kitchen, so our brownies ended up looking like this…

But when you do leave them in the fridge, it’s worth it. They are easier to eat, and the texture of the cool topping with the chewy brownies is really quite something.

Enjoy!