February 14^th is Valentine's Day. In contemporary Japan, it has become an annual event - a day to express your love and gratitude to those you love and care about, and to whom you are indebted, in most cases with a gift of chocolate.There are countries where men give gifts of love to women on that day, but in Japan, it has mostly become a day on which women give special gifts to men.

Valentine's Day gift-giving in Japan is not just from women to men. There is also something called tomo choco (short for tomodachi chocolate, or friendship chocolate), which refers to chocolate schoolgirls give each other on Valentine's Day as a token of affection.

As for MY Valentine's Day this year... well, unfortunately, instead of giving chocolate to a special someone, I ended up giving my tomo choco to my friends and family - as usual!

What was fun this year, though, was that I baked some fondant au chocolat (chocolate fondant) and cupcakes for the first time, and gave it to my family and to my co-workers at my part-time job.

Next year, I'd like to challenge myself further with a Valentine's Day culinary adventure, and bake a cake that's harder to make!

Next year, I'd like to challenge myself further with a Valentine's Day culinary adventure, and bake a cake that's harder to make!

Translation: Michele Yamada