<human>: While I've (26F) been with someone for Vday in the past, we've never done anything for it; however my current boyfriend (29M) is very special to me and we have plans to get married in a couple years (we've been together almost 1YR), so I want to do something nice for him. 

I'm aware that some kind of sweet is usually exchanged for Vday, like chocolate, but what about gifts? I asked a girlfriend for advice, but she said her fiancé has always just bought her gifts himself, while she does nothing, which seems weird to me.

One part of my gift will be making a certain kind of cheesecake & with a special pan I purchased for making it in. The cost of cheesecake materials plus pan will come out around $35, which is fairly pricey for me, but I really wanted to bake him something he loves.

I also purchased a book to go with it, but I've been seeing a lot of things suggesting that gifts aren't really done for Vday. Right now, I'm between cheesecake/card/book or cheesecake/card/activity (to be planned for when the weather improves). Either seems nice to me, but given that I don't know whether Vday gifts usually total $10 or $30 or $100, I wanted advice. Thoughts?

Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?
<bot>: I've never given gifts for Valentine's Day before, and want to be sure I'm "doing it right". Where does Vday lie on the Christmas-to-random-surprise-from-the-supermarket scale?