*Valentine's Day on a Plate*

Prepare the Devil's food cake according to the package instructions- using a 9x13 baking dish.

Meanwhile, prepare the strawberries. Rinse the strawberries and using a small paring knife, slice the greens off, leaving as much of the strawberry as possible. Using an egg slicer (or a knife if you don't have one), slice the strawberries into equally thick pieces. Place them in a bowl with the Grand Marnier and 2 Tablespoons of sugar. Stir to combine, and let them soak and macerate until you are ready to assemble your dessert.

Next, prepare the whipped cream. Using either a stand mixer, a hand mixer, or your hand and a whisk (the good old fashioned way), beat the heavy cream until it begins to thicken and double in volume. When it is almost at the consistency of soft peaks, stir in the confectioner's sugar, the vanilla extract, and the almond extract. Continue beating the cream until it is light and fluffy. At this point, if you wish, add a few drops of red food coloring and fold it in gently to produce a pink whipped cream, in the spirit of Valentine's day! Keep chilled in the refrigerator until ready to assemble the dessert.

The cake should be ready by this point. Remove it from the oven to cool for a bit. Carefully turn the cake out of the baking pan onto a cutting board. Using a large heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out several heart pieces of the cake. With the heart slices, turn a serated knife horizontally and slice the cakes in half(like a hamburger bun). Let these pieces cool even more before assembling the dessert.

Lastly, prepare the ganache. Bring a small pot of water to a gentle simmer, enough to produce a good amount of steam. Place a glass or metal bowl over the top of the pot- creating a double boiler. Place the chocolate chips in the bowl with the cream, and stir continuously until it is smooth and melted and shiny. Stir in the teaspoon of Vanilla extract. (Will be extra...keep in your fridge to serve over ice cream!) 6. To assemble the napoleons: Dip a small spoon into the chocolate ganache and drizzle the sauce creatively on the serving plate (swirls, circles, zig zags, etc.) Place one slice of the heart shaped cake in the center of the plate. Spoon a generous helping of the whipped cream on top of that, then top the whipped cream with a scoop of the soaked strawberry slices. After the strawberries comes the other slice of cake, then another dollop of whipped cream, then more strawberries. Drizzle the entire napoleon with more of the chocolate ganache.

Devour! *This recipe could be simplified if you wanted to use Cool Whip instead of making the whipped cream from scratch (just stir the food coloring and extracts into the prepared Cool Whip) and even more simple by using pre-made chocolate sauce, such as Hershey's. But I think you'll be happy you took the extra time to make it yourself- this dish is TO DIE FOR!