Want to bake something special for that special someone?

Check out Kaylee Lasseter's Valentine's Day baking inspiration guide.

Red velvet heart brownies

A Valentine's Day twist on chocolate brownies.

Ingredients:

  • 125g butter
  • 160g sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract or essence
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tsp red food colouring
  • 150g flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 50g chopped white chocolate

Instructions:

  • Preheat the oven to 180ºC
  • Line a 7 inch square baking tray with baking parchment
  • Cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy
  • Add eggs one at a time, mix throughly
  • Add vanilla, sifted cocoa powder and red colouring, mix until the batter is a solid red
  • Slowly add flour, salt and the white chocolate before pouring into a tray
  • Cook for 20-30 minutes until a skewer can be inserted into the centre and comes out clean
  • Allow to cool and cut into heart shapes

Heart-shaped piñata cookies

Tasty cookies with a sweet centre.

Ingredients:

    • 150g granulated sugar
    • 170g unsalted butter

    • 1 large egg

    • ½ tsp almond extract

    • ½ tsp baking powder

    • 280g flour
    • 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
    • Small sweets such as mini M&M's or Love Hearts
    • Frosting / icing of your choice for gluing the cookies together and decoration
    • Red food colouring (optional)

    Instructions:

    • Preheat the oven to 190ºC
    • In a small bowl, stir together all of the dry ingredients
    • In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth, beat in egg
    • Gradually add drops of food colouring to your wet ingredients and mix until you reach the colour of your choice
    • Gradually blend in the dry ingredients
    • Mix in almond and vanilla extracts
    • Wrap your dough in cling film and freeze for four hours
    • Sprinkle a surface with flour and roll dough about 1cm thick
    • Cut a heart shape out of a 10cm x 10cm square of paper
    • Use paper heart as a stencil, cut cookies and place onto a baking parchment covered baking tray (you will need 3 heart cookies per piñata cookie)
    • Cut a smaller heart shape out of every third cookie (around 1cm in) and remove it from the baking parchment so you are left with a heart outline
    • Cook for 10-15 minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
    • Allow to cool for 5 minutes
    • Lay all of your full heart cookies baked side up
    • Outline the inside of your full heart cookies with your 'glue'
    • Stick one heart outline cookie to one of your full heart cookies, continue until you have one cookie base to one lid
    • Fill your cookie base with sweets of your choice
    • 'Glue' your cookie base to your lid
    • Allow to harden for 20 minutes before eating

    Sugar sprinkled Valentine's Day strawberry cupcakes

    A simple and sweet Valentine's cupcake.

    Ingredients:

    • 220g all-purpose flour
    • 120g unsalted butter (melted)
    • 50g strawberry yogurt
    • 175ml milk
    • 5 large strawberries
    • 200g granulated sugar
    • ½ tsp baking powder
    • ½ tsp salt
    • 1 large egg
    • ½ tsp red food coloring
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract
    • 3 tbsp icing sugar

    Instructions:

    • Preheat the oven to 160ºC
    • Line 2 (12 cup) cupcake tins with paper cases
    • In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients
    • In a large bowl gently beat together wet ingredients
    • Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined
    • Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins.
    • Cook for 20-25 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through, until a skewer can be inserted into the centre and comes out clean
    • Allow to cool, cut a heart out of paper and place on top of each cupcake, dust with icing sugar to leave heart shape

    Share your Valentines baking recipes and pictures with us by filling out this form or by emailing them to newsroom@cheshirenews.co.uk.

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