Bites from other Blogs

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and homemade treats are always a fantastic way to show your loved ones that you care. A batch of classic chocolate chip cookies is a good way to go, as are any of these amazing chocolate desserts, but if you want something a little more holiday-centric, these desserts Valentine’s themed treats should fit the bill nicely.

• All you need are a pair of heart shaped cookie cutters to make these lovely Strawberry Lemonade Valentine Linzer Cookies from Neighbor Food. The cookies are like a taste of summer any time of year, but of course their heart-shaped design makes them a perfect Valentine’s Day dessert. The cookies are gluten free and made with a mix of gluten free flour and ground almonds. They’re flavored with lemon, vanilla and a hint of cinnamon. The filling is strawberry jam, but you could use raspberry or another favorite flavor to customize them to your own tastes.
• Your heart-shaped cookie cutters can get even more use in a batch of A Farmgirl’s Dabbles‘ Cream Wafer Sandwich Cookies with Strawberry Buttercream. The tender, shortbread-like cookie dough is cut into small hearts to give these bite sized cookies a Valentine’s Day flair. They’re filled with a pink-hued strawberry-flavored buttercream, which adds a lovely pop of color to the golden, buttery cookies. If you want to dress them up even more, you could add some fresh strawberries into the center of the cookies as well – but if you go that route, you should be sure to eat them soon after assembly.
• Sugar Hero‘s Truffle-Topped Heart Cake is sure to please chocolate lovers and it looks very impressive, too. The decadent dessert is made with rich chocolate cake layers, using a batter that is made with plenty of chocolate and blackberry jam. The jam gives the cake a fruitiness and keeps it nice and moist. The layers are filled with a chocolate and blackberry filling, then the whole thing is covered with a chocolate ganache glaze. For a finishing touch, the cake is topped off with homemade chocolate truffles. The only downside here is that you might need more than one Valentine to finish the cake!
• The Winter White Red Velvet Fudge that Cafe Sucre Farine posted is a dessert that looks picture perfect for Valentine’s Day. The white chocolate fudge is swirled with a chocolate red velvet layer that gives the candy its dramatic red and white look. Fudge is easier to make than many other chocolate desserts, so you don’t have to be an experienced chocolate maker for it to turn out beautifully, though you should take your time creating the swirls for a perfect finished look.
• Hungry Happenings whipped up a Valentine’s Day cake that is probably unlike any Valentine’s treat you’ve seen before. This Conversation Heart Piñata Cake is a heart-shaped cake that is stuffed full of conversation hearts, which fall out like the candy inside a pinata when the cake is cut. It’s a fun effect! It is crafted with several layers of cake that were cut out into heart shapes, with cutouts left in the center of the middle layers of cake to create a hollow area that could be filled with the conversation heart candies. It’s not as difficult to make as you might think, and you’ll probably get more than a few brownie points for effort when you serve it.

And if you want to treat yourself to a little something special for Valentine’s Day, be sure to head over to Brewed Daily to enter my Valentine’s Day Gift Pack Giveaway for a chance to win a great gift pack from Starbucks.