20 Best Valentine's Day Dessert Recipes
Treat your sweetie to decadent cakes, glazed Valentine cookies, easy truffles, mini chocolate souffles and more.
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Gâteau au Chocolate
This exceedingly moist and rich (but so simple!) cake is all about chocolate and butter; if you can swing it, choose top-quality brands.
Related: Decadent Chocolate Dessert Recipes
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Mini Raspberry White Chocolate Whoopie Pies
This special-occasion dessert will disappear quickly. Soft cookies sandwich a white chocolate mascarpone filling and seedless raspberry preserves.
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Valentine's Day Marshmallow Treats
Dress up rice cereal hearts with frosting, pretzels, peanut butter, chocolate and other toppings for Valentine's Day sweets.
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Red-Hot Velvet Brownies
These cinnamon-spiked red velvet bars taste just like red-hot candies—with a layer of luscious cream cheese frosting on top!
Related: Delicious Red Velvet Dessert Recipes
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Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
Top these gooey-center, intense chocolate desserts with powdered sugar.
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Cookie Canvas
Whip up flavored icing for cookies, sweet rolls, cakes or coffee cake in minutes. Just mix 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar with 2 to 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.
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Mini Chocolate Soufflés
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.
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Red Velvet Pots
For a cake that comes together in minutes, just mix and microwave. Top with a powdered sugar heart.
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White Chocolate-Cherry Shortbread
Dip these cookies in melted white chocolate, then roll in nonpareils and edible glitter for Valentine color.
Related: The Midwest's Best Cookie Recipes
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Valentine's Day Chocolate Trail Mix
Sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy—this has everything you want in a snack mix. Plus chocolate, of course!
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Salted Almond Truffle Tart
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.
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Vanilla Pudding with Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle
Chocolate desserts may be traditional on Valentine's Day, but for vanilla fans, we like this twist on old-fashioned cookies and milk—a creamy vanilla pudding topped with crispy-buttery cookie bits.
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Three-Tiered Chocolate Cake
Few foods say "celebration" like cake, especially chocolate. The recipe for this decadently rich dessert includes variations such as Hot Chocolate Cake, Spice is Nice Chocolate Cake and Mocha Chocolate Cake.
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Fudge Brownie Hearts
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.
Related: Rich, Moist Brownie Recipes
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Red Velvet Cheesecake
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.
Related: Creamy Cheesecakes You'll Love
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Candy-Box Caramels
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.
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Cocoa and Brown Butter Shortbread Bites
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 glamour.
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Creamy Peanut Butter Truffles
Minnesota's Saint Paul Hotel features truffles similar to these.
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Tinted Angel Cake
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.
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The Original Chocolate Fondue
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.
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Puffed Heart Lemon Cookies
A lemon-flavor glaze, colored white or pink, adds a sweet-tart topping to these cakelike confections for a Valentine's dessert.