Here are some easy desserts you can make on Valentine’s Day for those special people in your life!
1. Cake Pops!
Here is a simple technique for making delightful cake pops. All you need is box cake, chocolate of your choice (white, dark, milk etc), frosting, and sticks. Depending on the cake mix of your purchase, you will need either vanilla or chocolate frosting; if you want to be fun with colors, you can get colored vanilla frosting. Follow the instructions on the box and bake the cake. It doesn’t matter what shape it is because once it cools off, you will be crushing it into fine pieces. Once you have it crushed into fine pieces of crumbs, take the frosting and mix it into the crumbs until it gets firm. Once you’ve got everything mixed, use a spoon or ice cream scooper to scoop out balls to your desire size and place it in on a flat surface. When you’re done with thigs, get a pot of water and bring it to boil. While this is happening, place a bowl over the pot (not plastic) and pour the chocolate chips or place the chocolate bar into the bowl to melt. Take the cake pops out of the freezer and one by one, dip it into the chocolate once it has cooled off a bit. After the dipping of the pops, you can decorate it however you desire, whether it is sprinkles or heart shape candies. Then, place them into the freezer for at least 3 hours or until the chocolate has harden. Atnd here you have it, beautiful treats for you and your sweetie.
2. Chocolate Covered Stuffed Strawberries!
These are the easiest and quickest treats to make. They are one of my favorite things to eat and bake and I am glad I get to share it with you all. Now. you will just need some juicy, red strawberries, semi-sweet baking chocolate (you can find at Target, Wegmans, or any local grocery), graham crackers, pecans/walnuts, and your filling. I like to use cream cheese as my filling but you can fill it with chocolate. After you have collected your ingredients, take all the strawberries out and place them on the cutting board. Begin cutting off the top of the strawberries and carve the middle out of it. Do not carve too much because you will need it to be dense enough to hold your filling. Moving forward, as previously stated in the cake pop segment, you want to melt the chocolate the same way, in a bowl over boiling water. Once the chocolate is fully melted, dip the ends of the strawberries in it and place the ends faced up onto a flat surface to freeze for at least two hours or until chocolate has harden. While the berries are in the freezer, you should start your filling. If you are using chocolate, then just repeat the previous step or melt extra to avoid doing it again. If you decide to use cream cheese, then you will need one pack of cream cheese (I prefer Philadelphia), 1tsp vanilla essence, 1/2 cup of white sugar, one egg. Mix all the ingredients together until the cream cheese is rich and smooth. Now, here’s where the fun begin. Remove the strawberries from the freezer and pour the cream cheese or chocolate mix in a sandwich baggie or piping bag. Then start to pipe the filling into the center of the strawberries individually, do not over pipe the filling to the point it is spilling out. Finally, after piping you can dip the strawberries in the topping of your choice. Typically if you use the cream cheese filling, crushed graham crackers would be a better suit but you can use nuts, chocolate chips, or other toppings of your choice.
3, Red Velvet Whoopie Pies!
Here is the lazy way to make deliciouswhoopie pies. Bake 24 cupcakes as you normally would but add a little bit more mixture to each so when the batter rises, it will sort of create a muffin top. After finish baking, let the cupcakes cool off and then begin to cut off the tops of the cupcakes. With two at a time,create a sandwich with filling or frosting and there you have a whoopie pie!
4. Heart-Shaped Cookies!
For those who don’t buy cookies cutters, I find this method to be very creative and resourceful. All you have to do is roll out the cookie in a circle, get a cup and split it in half. Then place one-half on top of the other half using the uncut end. Afterwards, press it down into each other and smooth the edges out to make a heart. For those who use sugar cookies, spread frosting on the top once the cookies have cooled off. Then, decorate it with sugar crystals, sprinkles, or whatever you want. If you really want to have some fun, you can make ice cream sandwiches too. Spread the ice cream between two cookies and let it freeze until is rock hard.