For most people, Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to remind your sweetheart how much you love them. But in my family, it means it’s time for my parents’ wedding anniversary.

When they married, the day wasn’t chosen because it was the ‘day of love,’ but simply because that Saturday was available at the local church.  It’s now been 42 year since that day and we try to celebrate every year.

This year, I decided to take on dessert duty, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a Red Velvet Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.

I’ve had good luck before with Martha Stewart recipes for cupcakes, so I went for a Red Velvet Chocolate Cake and a Basic Buttercream recipe. (I’m still a little worried about trying the frosting that requires adding hot syrup to egg whites that was recommended for the cake’s frosting, but someday I’ll try it.)

I doubled the cake recipe for my two 10″ round pans, and the cake turned out nice and moist. I made about 1 1/3 the frosting recipe (because that’s how much butter I had) and it worked out, but next time I think I’ll double the recipe just in case.

I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make the fondant cutouts and just glued them on with a little water. I then rolled pink and white ropes for the base, which are much harder to make an even size than I thought they would be, so if anybody has any tips please let me know.

And that’s it! Everybody seemed to love it, so I’d say it was a successful recipe. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!