25 Best Valentine's Day Dessert Recipes

This exceedingly moist and rich (but so simple!) cake is all about chocolate and butter; if you can swing it, choose top-quality brands.

This special-occasion dessert will disappear quickly. Soft cookies sandwich a white chocolate mascarpone filling and seedless raspberry preserves.

Top these gooey-center, intense chocolate desserts with powdered sugar.

Dress up rice cereal hearts with frosting, pretzels, peanut butter, chocolate and other toppings for Valentine's Day sweets.

These cinnamon-spiked red velvet bars taste just like red-hot candies-with a layer of luscious cream cheese frosting on top! 

These warm, bittersweet puffs have coffee in them, but you'd never know it. Performing culinary sleight of hand, the hidden ingredient just helps chocolate taste more chocolatey, like a capful of vanilla would, but with a darker intent.

Dip these cookies in melted white chocolate, then roll in nonpareils and edible glitter for Valentine color.

Whip up flavored icing for cookies, sweet rolls, cakes or coffee cake in minutes. Just mix 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar with 2-3 tablespoons liquid, then drizzle away. For a Valentine's Day treat, try maraschino cherry juice for pretty pink color. Maraschino cherry juice, coffee and creme de menthe add color as well as flavor. Most other liqueurs and citrus juices yield white or cream-color icing. For unflavored drizzle, use milk.

Few foods say "celebration" like cake, especially chocolate. We challenged our Test Kitchen to come up with a fresh, delicious twist on this all-time favorite. The result is a decadently rich dessert. The recipe includes variations such as Hot Chocolate Cake, Spice is Nice Chocolate Cake and Mocha Chocolate Cake. Three-Tiered Chocolate Cake

Candylike tiny cakes require just a basic recipe using a mix, frosting and candy coating. Customize to suit your tastes with extra flavor and toppings!

These Valentine treats combine bittersweet and semisweet chocolate with plenty of butter, eggs, granulated sugar and brown sugar for a moist, rich dessert. After the brownies have cooked and cooled, you can cut them into bars or use 3-inch heart-shape cutters. Drizzle with a vanilla glaze.

Sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy-this trail mix has everything you want in a snack. Plus chocolate, of course!

Use a basic sugar cookie dough to create any of four heart-shape designs for this sweetheart of a Valentine cookie.

We took the red velvet cake we love and gave it a creamy twist. Don't let the red color fool you: The flavor is all chocolate.

Make packaged caramel squares a perfect, easy Valentine treat by dipping them in sprinkles, crushed nuts and bits of candy. Drizzle with dark or white chocolate to add even more color.

Browned butter infuses irresistible nuttiness into these four-ingredient cookies without sullying their essential simplicity or sandy texture. Dip them in satiny chocolate for effortless glamor.Cocoa and Brown Butter Shortbread Bites

One of our testers described this tart's filling as "chocolate butter." We couldn't agree more. It's fantastically rich, with roast-toasty salted almonds in the crust and flaky sea salt on top to balance the sweetness.

Put a twist on old-fashioned cookies and milk with this creamy vanilla pudding topped with crispy-buttery cookie bits.

A lemon-flavor glaze, colored white or pink, adds a sweet-tart topping to these cakelike confections for a Valentine's dessert.

Drizzle this chocolate cupcake with Powdered Sugar Glaze and then rolled in chocolate shavings if you want it to look like ours. Or top the glaze with nuts, hard candies, chopped chocolate or colored sugar.

Minnesota's Saint Paul Hotel features truffles similar to these at its annual Chocolate Lovers' Tea.

For a cake that comes together in minutes, just mix and microwave. Top with a powdered sugar heart.

The many colors of Kool-Aid, a Nebraska invention, mean there is an array of choices for this angel food cake that starts with a mix. Pink lemonade Kool-Aid adds pastel Valentine dessert prettiness and a delicate flavor to Tinted Angel Cake.

Fondue stars at the Melting Pot restaurant in Indianapolis. We offer The Original Chocolate Fondue recipe as well as versions based on s'mores and caramels. Dippers include fruit, angel food cake, pound cake cubes and marshmallows.

These light-as-air sweet kisses, flavored with cocoa and espresso powders, are fat-free and just 32 calories each.

Flavored with cocoa powder and generously frosted with sweetened whipped cream, this tender Valentine's Day dessert from our Test Kitchen was featured on a Midwest Living® cover.

Fill these pretty Double Thumbprint Cookies with cherry or raspberry preserves for a Valentine dessert.

Honey gives these cinnamon-spiced cookies great flavor and a slightly soft texture.