Valentine’s Day is only a few days away and you may be struggling with the dessert portion of your special lovey dovey dinner that you’ve planned specially for your Valentine.  Well, I’m back to smother you with sweetness. Everyone knows that I love chocolate, but I do like sweet things that exist without chocolate (although, I don’t know anything that can exist without chocolate).  After  thinking and thinking, I came up with this recipe.  It’s easy, it’s theme-y and it’s so DELISH.

I call it “My Valentine’s Little Plum[short]cake”

Here’s what you do!

First, start by making some shortbread.  I used the shortcake portion of this recipe and I cannot rave enough about it!  I’ve never made shortbread before and I was certain that I was going to mess it up.  I didn’t!  And they were perfect.   Instead of cutting them into circles, I cut them into hearts before putting them in the oven. I made some big hearts and then an equal amount of small hearts for a little pizazz.  I also cut them thinner than the recipe calls for.  3” thick patties were a bit too much shortbread for my taste.  I cut them a little over ¼” thick and they were great.

Next, I whipped up the cream.  I made it up all by myself.  It was kind of an accident.  I was trying to make a fruit dip recipe I had, but I couldn’t find it on my Pinterest…my food boards are out of control.  I thought I had the ingredients right, but nope.  It’s soooo good though and I’m grateful for the mistake.  Here’s how to make it

Ingredients:

8 Oz of Cream cheese, softened

¼ cup heavy whipping cream

One 8 oz container of Cool Whip- thawed, not frozen

¼ Cup milk

1 packet of instant vanilla pudding mix

Instructions:

Cream together the cream cheese with ¼ cup whipping cream.   Mix in the Cool Whip and ¼ cup milk gradually switching off- a little bit of this, then a little bit of that.  Mix in the vanilla pudding mix.  That’s it!  It’s supposed to be on the thicker side like a spread, but if it’s too thick for you feel free to add little bits of milk until you reach a consistency that you like.    Here’s what you should have. MMMMMM

P.S. this makes a LOT of cream.  You can probably half it if you want to. But I’ll find other uses for the rest I’m sure.  It’ll hold in the refrigerator for a few says.  Use your discretion on the amount of time you keep it…it has dairy, so definitely refrigerate between uses.

Now grab a jar of Red Plum Jam.  I found it at the regular grocery store in the jam section.  You can use any kind you like, but for mine, I went with plum and it was GOOOOOOOD.

Assemble this bad boy!

Melt the jelly by either heating on the stove top on low heat in a sauce pan, or by microwaving it in a glass dish at 10-15 second intervals.  Pour the Jelly on the large shortcake heart.  Add some cream to the top using a cake piping bag or a freezer bag with a hole cut in the bottom.  Now, place your smaller shortcake heart on top and drizzle more jam for a finishing touch.

Make sure to add an extra dollop of cream if you want…why not?

I really hope you enjoy this special Valentine’s Day treat.  It’s so flippin’ tasty and my entire family LOVED it.  It’s so versatile too!  You can change up the cream by changing your pudding mix flavors.  You can use any flavor of jam or even substitute it for a covering of chocolate or caramel…mmmmm.  Make it how you like it!

We hope you have a great Valentine’s Day with the ones you love.  We will ❤

-Michelle & Crystal-