I feel like I am always on the lookout for something creative to make for Valentine’s Day. January is such a blah, grey month, and I miss having something to celebrate with colors and sprinkles. And along comes Valentine’s Day! Even as a single person (for WAY to many years!) I celebrated the day- just because you need SOMETHING in February to make you smile. In fact, if you are single and these love bugs make you want to roll your eyes, try my cute Frog Prince Oreo Pops instead! 🙂
These treats are a little on the fussy side. Obviously. Anything cute requires a little time. If you want a simple, delicious dessert- without the fuss- you can just pipe some topping on, add some sprinkles, and call it a day.
Want to know how to make these fun treats? Here is the recipe: (printable version)
Ingredients: (makes 24 love bug cupcakes)
Love Bugs: (make these 1st)- you will need a silicone chocolate bomb mold
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) melted butter
- 2 teaspoons strawberry or raspberry extract
- 1 cup of raspberry jam
- Food color in pink
- One bag of Wilton’s Candy melts in pink
- About 1/2 cup of Wilton’s Candy melts in black
- 48 candy eyes
- Candy heart sprinkles
Brownie cups:
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
Chocolate Glaze:
- 6oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 6 tablespoons butter (do not substitute margarine here!)
- Green jimmies for grass!
DIRECTIONS:
Berry Love Bugs:
- Melt pink candy melts in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between until smooth.
- Use a clean paint brush to brush melts into a chocolate bomb mold and freeze for a couple minutes until hard.
- Make berry filling by adding melted butter to sugar and extract.
- Mix well, using water to bring it to a thick but spreadable consistency.
- Add pink food coloring to make it a fun pink color.
- Place filling into a large zip-top bag and seal tightly.
- Cut a corner off bag and pipe berry filling into each pink shell- filling them about 1/4 full.
- Place jam into a small zip-top bag, clip corner and pipe a little bit in the center of each pink shell.
- Pipe more berry filling over the top until it is level .
- Use a knife to spread berry filling to edges of shell.
- Refreeze these for a few minutes before gently popping them out and setting them on a plate.
- Repeat this process until you have 24 berry bombs ready.
Brownie cups:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Cream butter and sugar together.
- Beat in eggs, cocoa, vanilla and salt.
- Add flour and milk (alternating them and mixing well in between)
- Spoon evenly into 24 cupcake liners in a cupcake tin.
- Bake at 350F degrees for 15-18 minutes (don’t over bake- they will start to pull away from the liner)
- Cool.
Chocolate Glaze:
- Melt butter and chocolate together in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until completely melted and smooth.
- Set aside until cupcakes are ready to assemble.
- Assemble the cupcakes by spooning a little chocolate glaze on top of a brownie and spreading to all edges.
- Place a berry bomb in the center and sprinkle green jimmies around edge.
- Allow this all to harden up (refrigerate to speed process up).
- Melt black candy melts in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between until smooth.
- Use a clean paint brush to paint a black face on the front of each bomb, and immediately place eyes before candy melts harden. Place the rest of the melts in a plastic zip-top bag, cut a corner and pipe the center line down the bug’s back.
- Melt just a few pink candy melts, and use a paint brush to stick each little candy heart “dot” in place.
- Enjoy!
My thoughts: These are delicious. Think chocolate covered strawberries. I made half of mine with the love bug domes, and half with just the berry icing and chocolate glaze- just to save time. Either way, they are delicious and sure to make YOUR Valentine smile! Enjoy! ~r
Looking for other fun baking ideas for Valentine’s Day? Click on the title to see the recipe:
EASYBAKED 