Valentine's Day

70 Chocolate Desserts That Say “I Love You” for Valentine’s Day

updated Feb 2, 2024

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angled shot of a piece of triple chocolate mousse cake topped with raspberries. — Credit: Photo: Ryan Liebe ; Food Stylist: Brett Regot

Whether you prefer dark and rich or smooth and creamy, there is almost no other ingredient as intrinsically linked to romance as chocolate. While Valentine’s Day marketing helped drive this association home (and still does), the relationship between love and chocolate has been around for much longer than Valentine’s Day. Throughout history, chocolate and cocoa were consumed as a tonic for health and vitality — which, of course, fed romances too.

A beautifully wrapped box of chocolates is a universal symbol of romantic love, but we think it’s much sweeter to make a chocolate dessert yourself. Cocoa and chocolate are both easy to bake with, but you can also turn them into creamy chocolate mousses, comforting puddings, and luxe chocolate drinks too. The sky’s the limit.

Here are 70 chocolate recipes that pair well with a romantic dinner to make for someone you love (including yourself).

In This Article

Chocolate Cakes
Chocolate Mousse and Puddings
Chocolate Treats
Chocolate Cookies
Chocolate Pies
Brownies

Chocolate Cakes

All chocolate cakes are luxurious in their own way, but these cakes are a bit more involved when it comes to time and ingredients than everyday cakes.

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Devil's Food Cake

Rich, decadent, and chocolate-y without being overly sweet, Devil's food cake is everything a chocolate cake should be.

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Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

A bowl of chocolate mousse is a decadent treat, but a double-layered chocolate mousse cake with a cookie crust is next level.

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With its rich molten center, this incredibly decadent cake is for all the chocolate-lovers out there.

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Skillet Texas Sheet Cake

Make Texas sheet cake in a skillet with a rich, chocolatey cake, roasted pecans, and fudgy frosting.

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Inspired by the classic snack, this decadent chocolate cake is filled with a fluffy marshmallow-esque frosting and covered in fudgy ganache.

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Chocolate Cake with Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter Frosting

What takes this particular cake over the top? Crowning it with a light-as-air honey-peanut butter frosting and a sprinkling of honey-roasted peanuts.

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Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake

This chocolate roll cake is filled with marshmallowy frosting and coated in a shiny chocolate glaze. Each slice is a perfect balance of tender cake and creamy frosting.

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German Chocolate Cake

This classic German chocolate cake is complete with a gooey coconut-pecan filling and a creamy chocolate frosting.

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Mississippi Mud Cake

Tender chocolate cake layered with gooey, melted marshmallows and warm chocolate frosting.

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Chocolate Strawberry Cake

A chocolate covered strawberry-inspired cake made up of essential four components: moist chocolate cake, bright and vibrant strawberry buttercream, silky chocolate ganache, and fresh strawberries.

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Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

This ultra-moist chocolate cake is deep and rich in flavor and best served with whipped cream and toasted hazelnuts.

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Hot Cocoa Cupcakes

Make hot cocoa cupcakes with a rich, chocolatey cake and easy marshmallow fluff frosting.

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Chocolate Banana Cake

An easy chocolate-banana sheet cake topped with a salted peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

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This 5-ingredient flourless chocolate cake gets its lofty height from beaten egg whites.

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Chocolate Torte

A very simple and rich chocolate torte.

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Texas Sheet Cake

This classic Texan cake is rich in chocolate flavor with a delicious, gooey texture from warm frosting melding with the warm cake.

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Flourless Chocolate Almond Layer Cake

You’ll bake this cake in a jelly roll pan and split it into threes to make the layers. It's filled with a nutty chocolate cream cheese filling then covered with chocolate ganache and toasted almonds.

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Rich & Gooey Earthquake Cake

Rich German chocolate cake and creamy cheesecake collide in this decadent sheet cake.

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The Easiest Chocolate Pudding Cakes

When you plunge your spoon through the delicate, crackly crust of this single-serve dessert, the lush, oozy center is likely to remind you of a molten lava cake. But this chocolate-filled ramekin is something entirely different.

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Chocolate Cobbler

A fudgy, molten cross between a chocolate cake and a pudding.

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Black Forest Cupcakes

These chocolate cupcakes deliver a spongy cake stuffed with a sweet cherry filling, a light and fluffy whipped cream topping, and the requisite shower of shaved chocolate.

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Ina Garten's Devil's Food Cake

No date night in would be complete without a special dessert.

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Flourless Chocolate Cake

A truly flourless chocolate cake that manages to be light and rich at the same time. It's genuinely gluten-free, fabulously foolproof, and all chocolate.

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The Deepest Darkest Chocolate Cake

Using our favorite chocolate tricks we streamline a decadent cake into 7 layers of chocolate bliss.

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Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Cream

Cocoa powder joins forces with a bit of coffee to bring you the rich, deep, and intensely flavored chocolate cupcake you crave.

Chocolate Mousse and Puddings

Pudding and mousse are the height of romantic desserts because they require your complete attention to make, plus they need to be made ahead which only builds the anticipation of eating them.

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2-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

The easiest version of this classic dessert might be the only dessert recipe you need for the rest of your life.

2 / 6

The Best Chocolate Pudding from Scratch

Knowing how to make awesome chocolate pudding from scratch is like having the golden key to winning dessert.

3 / 6

Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème

Luxurious chocolate pudding made with a mix of milk, cream, sugar, and egg yolks, baked in a water bath in the oven.

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Chocolate Coconut Pudding

If you don’t have espresso powder at home, it’s completely optional. As with many desserts where the chocolate is really the star, use the best quality you can find or afford.

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Chrissy Teigen's Chocolate Mousse with Salty Rice Krispies–Hazelnut Crackle

This decadent chocolate mousse is topped with a crave-worthy hazelnut crackle.

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Chocolate Bread Pudding

Finally, a bread pudding that’s perfect for two.

Chocolate Treats

These chocolate desserts really appeal to the chocolate connoisseur.

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Valentine's Day Oreo Truffles

These festive Oreo truffles are easier to make than classic chocolate truffles, and everyone will love their fudgy centers and snappy chocolate coating.

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Easy Chocolate Fondue

A step-by-step guide to making smooth chocolate fondue with all your favorite dippers.

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Classic Chocolate Fudge

We promise it's easiest (and best!) you'll ever make.

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Failproof Chocolate Truffles

Here's your step-by-step guide to making rich, creamy chocolate truffles at home.

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Chocolate-Covered Cherries

In this classic candy-store confection, maraschino cherries are wrapped in a layer of fondant, then dipped in melty chocolate.

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Hot Chocolate Bombs

Hot chocolate bombs are an impressive and fun DIY gift kids and adults alike will enjoy.

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Chocolate-Covered Pretzels

These two-ingredient chocolate-covered pretzels are sweet and savory for the best of both worlds, require zero baking, and can be customized with fun toppings.

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Chocolate-Covered Shortbread Sticks (Pocky)

This homemade version of the classic store-bought treat is the perfect weekend baking project.

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Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios, Rose Petals & Walnuts

This silky chocolate bark — sprinkled with crushed bright green pistachios, light pink rose petals, and neutral walnuts — is beautiful, delicious, and fun to eat.

Chocolate Cookies

Yes, cookies can be romantic! The key? Making them a little more special than a regular chocolate chip cookie. These recipes will do the trick.

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Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Crisp and chewy chocolate brownie cookies made without flour or butter.

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Buckeye Brownie Cookies

Buckeye brownie cookies give you the best of three desserts baked into one impossibly irresistible sweet treat.

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Chocolate Halawa Cookies

Here, rich, chewy, chocolate cardamom cookies are perfect base for the earthy, slightly savory, sesame halawa.

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Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

These decadent double chocolate chip cookies are soft, chewy, and abundantly chocolate-y.

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Chocolate Truffle Cookies with Cherries & Walnuts

These cookies can go in many directions. Want triple chocolate cookies? Just add chocolate chips instead. Don’t have cherries? Use cranberries or raisins.

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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

These classic cookies are soft, tender, and just a little bit chewy, with a delicate exterior that's coated with a thick layer of powdered sugar.

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Chocolate Chip and Toffee Shortbread Cookies

These crumbly, buttery shortbread are dunked generously in melted chocolate.

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Salted Black Sables with Caramelized White Chocolate

This deep, dark chocolate cookies are studded with caramelized white chocolate chunks and sprinkled with flaky sea salt.

Chocolate Pies

Homey and comforting, chocolate pies are beloved for their contrast. Chocolate pairs beautifully with a tender, buttery crust.

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Chocolate Cream Pie

This silky-smooth chocolate cream pie is made with an Oreo crust and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

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No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie with Chocolate Whipped Cream

All three components of this pie — the crust, the filling, and the topping — are made in the food processor, meaning it's all prepped and assembled and ready to chill in the fridge in just 10 minutes.

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Mississippi Mud Pie

Chocolate lovers, listen up! You’ll want to dive deep into the layers of Oreo cookie crust, chocolate pudding, chewy fudge brownie, and whipped cream.

4 / 8

French Silk Pie

The fluffy, light texture of the filling in this pie really does remind us of silk, and it’s such a showstopper too.

5 / 8

Fancy No-Bake Chocolate Caramel Tart

It couldn't be easier to make this chocolate caramel tart that looks as fancy as anything you would find at a restaurant, thanks to two very clever shortcuts.

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Chocolate Pecan Pie

Classic pecan pie studded with bittersweet chocolate.

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Copycat Costco Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

This copycat version of the viral Costco pie might just be better than the original, from the graham cracker crust to the creamy layer of peanut butter and chocolate-marshmallow topping.

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Easy Chocolate Pie

Step-by-step guide to making an easy, yet decadent, chocolate pie.

Brownies

Warm brownies are an entire love language! Any of these would be perfect for wrapping up a date night at home.

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The Easiest Brownies

After making these no-bowl-required brownies once, you'll absolutely be hooked.

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Dark Heart Brownies

These triple-chocolate brownies are covered in a deep dark chocolate ganache and topped with dark chocolate hearts.

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Cream Cheese Brownies

These fudgy chocolate brownies feature a decadent cream cheese swirl.

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Coffee Brownies

These one-bowl brownies are fudgy and decadent, with a hint of coffee flavor.

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Bittersweet Brownies with Salted Peanut Butter Frosting

These rich, fudgy brownies are topped with a whipped peanut butter frosting and finished with flaked salt to tame the sweetness and round out all the flavors.

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One-Bowl Caramel Skillet Brownies

Here, store-bought caramel sauce is swirled into the batter before the skillet heads into the oven, which bakes up into sweet, sticky pockets that are like little treasures discovered among the chocolatey bites.

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Itty Bitty Brownie Bites

These ultra-fudgy flourless brownies made in a mini muffin tin and dusted with powdered sugar.

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Pantry Cocoa Brownies

These chewy brownies are shockingly simple, and yet totally decadent.

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Super-Thin Chocolate Brownies

These thin brownies are delicious on their own, but achieve new levels of amazingness when acting as bookends for the best ice cream sandwiches you’ll ever have.

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These triple decker mint brownies start with a rich fudge brownie base, topped with a layer of mint buttercream, and finished with dark chocolate ganache.

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Molten Midnight Brownies

An easy recipe for deep, dark chocolate brownies perfect for Halloween.

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2-Ingredient Brownies

Have chocolate chips and eggs on hand? You can make these in a little over 30 minutes.

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Pecan Pie Brownies

Boxed brownies topped with an easy pecan pie filling will be your favorite fall dessert mash-up.

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Peanut Butter Brownies

A thick swirl of peanut butter makes ordinary brownies even better.

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