Valentine's Day is over...

...and I'm left with lots of goodies! As far as this holiday goes, I think we showed a respectable amount of restraint by celebrating it with a simple card, a few of Fran's Chocolates heavenly salted caramels (my favorites!), and a nice dinner at a new Italian restaurant called Lucca (our pizza was delicious).

But I had saved the best for last: desert! And not just any desert, but the best Danish kringle this side of the big pond, flown in especially from Andersens Bakery in Santa Barbara!

We had last enjoyed this small piece of heaven on earth on my mother's birthday in December, when we were visiting my parents in Southern California. Imagine my delight when I found out Andersens Bakery is now offering online sales and second-day shipping!


I placed my order on Tuesday and sure enough, Thursday around 2pm this gigantic box showed up on my doorstep! Not only did my kringle arrive safe and sound, they included freezing and heating instructions as well as a little box of cookies! (like we needed more sweets at this point, but still, a very nice touch.)


I pulled out my biggest platter and after a bit of struggling to unwrap all the plastic wrap and parchment paper, I managed to slide the kringle onto my platter in one piece. After making an tasty pot of tea, we were ready to enjoy a little slice of heaven.


The flaky pastry dough combined with the rich almond paste (slightly crusty where it leaked out from the dough) and the big sugar crystals on top are simply divine – something that makes me think back fondly to my childhood years in Denmark, where wienerbrød had a weekly presence at our breakfast table. Best of all, we can have seconds anytime we want, now that we popped the left-overs in the freezer!