Valentine's Day Cookies and Treats

Valentine's Day is a great holiday to bake your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors some of your wonderful culinary creations. If you love to cook, you know how much fun it is to bake something and see it enjoyed by all. Here are a just a few fun dessert ideas for Valentine's Day:

Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies
Heart-shaped sugar cookies are a classic holiday treat and are also quite easy to make. You can find assorted heart-shaped cookie cutters and gourmet food colorings at places like Michael's and Target. For sugar cookies, you can serve tem plain or frost them with vanilla frosting; both are great, but frosted sugar cookies can be a mess and don't always turn out right for beginning cooks.

"Love of Chocolate" Cupcakes
If you love to bake cupcakes, and you and your friends looove chocolate, then make delicious "Love of Chocolate" cupcakes. Use devil's food cake mix for the base, and for frosting melt dark chocolate, powdered cacao, butter, and a little powdered sugar together. On top sprinkle some cacao powder, or if you happen to be wealthy, some beautiful confectioner's gold dust. These cupcakes are perfect for serious chocolate lovers, and will always be popular at Valentine's Day parties.

Heart Cupcake Cake
Cupcake cakes are fun creations where individual cupcakes are put into a collective shape and frosted like a cake. When it comes time to eat, people can just grab one of the cupcakes instead of slicing a cumbersome sheet. For Valentine's Day, you can make a fun heart-shaped cupcake cake. Bake a batch of any-flavored cupcakes, and arrange the cupcakes into a heart shape. Next, frost the top of your creation to look like a complete cake with red, pink, or white frosting, and decorate your cake with edible confetti, sprinkles, and icing.

Hershey Kiss Cookies
For a fun and simple Valentine's Day cookie, make sugar cookies as you normally would. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, make a groove in the middle of each cookie with your thumb, and place an unwrapped chocolate kiss in each groove. The hot cookie will melt the Hershey's kiss enough to stick to it, and the kiss will still retain its signature shape. This cookie is fun, simple, and tasty, and it's easy to make in bulk.

I hope these Valentine's Day cookie ideas have helped you decide what to bake for your friends, family, and co-workers. Homemade cookies are one of the best and easiest holiday presents because they show love and care to each recipient. Have a great Valentine's Day and Happy Baking!