18 Easy Valentine's Day Desserts
These last-minute easy Valentine's Day desserts are perfect for families who've had a busy week but want to celebrate the holiday with their kids with a sweet treat.
Not everyone has time for baking from scratch. I get it! We're in an especially busy season right now, too.
Just because life is busy, doesn't mean you have to totally skip the holiday. Instead, I've gathered a list of super-fun Valentine's Day treats for you to make either for or with your kids this weekend.
Most of the items start as a grab-and-go ingredient to grab from your grocery store and maybe add a little personal touch.
If you're feeling a little extra the night before and want to step up your dessert game just a bit, I've also included some really easy from-scratch upgrades for each dessert suggestion.
This way, you can mix and match the Valentine treat to your personal energy level!
Happy Valentine's Day, friends!
Easy Valentine's Day Treats for Kids
Heart-Shaped Brownies
Grocery Store Grab: Make a boxed mix of brownies, use heart shaped cookie cutters for each serving or top with canned pink frosting.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: With just a little more time, your kids can have a blast making homemade brownies with or without frosting and sprinkles on top.
Valentine's Day Brownie Pops
3-ingredient brownie pops coated in pink candy melts with heart-shaped sprinkles is an adorable Valentine's Day treat to make with kids:
Valentine's Day Popcorn
Grocery Store Grab: It doesn't get easier, or more last-minute than this. Pop a big batch of popcorn and sprinkle in some Valentine's Day M&M candies.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: With just a little more time, you can turn it into our favorite snack mix.
Get the Cupid's Crunch popcorn recipe here.
Frosted Valentine Cookies
The easiest sugar cookie to decorate for any holiday starts with my soft frosted sugar cookies recipe.
This frosted Valentine sugar cookies recipe uses that base recipe with pink frosting, heart shaped sprinkles, and red, white and pink jimmies:
Heart-Shaped Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Grocery Store Grab: Buy pre-baked cookies or grab a tub of cookie dough and make heart-shaped sugar cookies. Top with canned pink frosting and sprinkles.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: With just a little more time, you could make our very favorite cut-out sugar cookies and top them with our favorite cream cheese frosting.
Fancy Decorated Valentine Sugar Cookies
If you want to take a little more time with your sugar cookie project, you could make a batch of this easy royal icing recipe.
Then plan one or two of these easy Valentine sugar cookie design ideas:
Peanut Blossom Cookies with Valentine Kisses
Grocery Store Grab: You could grab a package of cookie dough or bag of cookie mix at the store to make these. Just drop some food coloring into the dough before rolling to turn them pink.
Plan Ahead Bonus: The homemade from-scratch version doesn't take too much more time but tastes so much better. Get our recipe for the best peanut blossoms here.
Strawberry Cheesecake Dip with Fresh Strawberries and Chocolate Chips
Grocery Store Grab: Looking for a fresh fruit dessert for the kids to keep things a little healthier? You could serve fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and mini chocolate chips for a simple snack platter.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: With just a little planning, you could also whip up a batch of my favorite strawberry cheesecake fruit dip!
Heart-Shaped Almond Cherry Scones
My girls have always loved baking homemade scones with me.
For Valentine's Day, I tried these heart-shaped almond cherry scones with a pretty drizzle over the top:
Chocolate Eclair Cake
Tastes like it came from a fancy French bakery but is made in 10 minutes or less with a box of pudding and a tub of chocolate frosting! Don't miss this easy old fashioned chocolate eclair cake you can make the day before.
Valentine's Day Waffle Sundaes
Grocery Store Grab: Get a package of Belgian waffles from the bakery department. Toast them in the toaster and then top with your kid's favorite ice cream and Valentine's Day sprinkles.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: You can make homemade chocolate Belgian waffles and even freeze them in advance if you need! These would be delicious with strawberry ice cream on top and a drizzle of hot fudge.
Cherry Delight
While this may not be a last-minute dessert, it certainly is easy.
My mom often made a similar cherry delight dessert for Valentine's Day because of the pretty red and white colors and I still remember it super fondly.
Cherry Cake with Almond Icing
Who could resist this cherry on top of the cake?? My sweet and easy cherry cake with almond icing can be made ahead and chilled overnight. We love to eat it cold.
Hot Cocoa Cheesecake Dip
Pile up the chocolate wafer cookies for dunking into this super-easy make ahead hot cocoa cheesecake dip loaded with mini chocolate chips and topped with marshmallows.
For a Valentine's Day spin, you could use pink marshmallows and add a dash of festive sprinkles.
Chocolate Croissant Puffs
You just need 3 ingredients to make my easy chocolate croissant puffs with your kids. Sprinkle the tops with pink sparkling sugar for a festive touch.
This would be such an adorable treat if you plan to watch one of these family-friendly movies set in Paris for the holiday.
Valentine's Chex Mix
There are tons of super-easy Valentine snack mix ideas on Pinterest. Just mix and match whatever cute candies you find at the store to invent your own!
Or start with my coconut Chex mix and add pink and red M&Ms for a chocolate-covered coconut crunch.
Valentine's Day Donuts
Grocery Store Grab: Get heart-shaped donuts or pink-frosted donuts from your local bakery.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: Homemade baked donuts are 110% worth the effort. They are so easy to make, even if you've never done it before.
Our favorite recipe is for the birthday cake donuts from The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book. Top them with pink frosting and sprinkles for a sweet surprise.
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Pink Rice Crispy Treats
Grocery Store Grab: You can buy pre-made rice crispy treats from the store and decorate them yourself but these are also so easy to make in a pinch from scratch.
Plan Ahead Bonus: Turn them into crispy pops on adorable stripey straws. Get all the details and a recipe to make them from scratch in The Ultimate Kid's Baking Book.
Mini Funfetti Cupcakes:
Grocery Store Grab: A container of mini funfetti cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles can often be found in the bakery department or you can grab a box mix to make your own.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: Skip the box mix and make the cupcakes and frosting from scratch for the kids. We included the perfect funfetti recipe in The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book.
Giant Pink & Red M&M Cookie Cake
Grocery Store Grab: Grab a package of cookie dough from the store. Roll it out into a large pie plate or pizza pan and top with red and pink chocolate candies.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: One of my very favorite recipes in The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book is the Giant Cookie Cake dotted with buttercream frosting. In fact, I loved it so much I made it for my own birthday last year!
Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Grocery Store Grab: It is likely they will have these at the grocery store to grab, but you could also buy the package of white chocolate covered pretzels and then drizzle them with pink candy melts and sprinkles for an easy 10-minute treat.
Plan Ahead Upgrade: Get pretzel wands and the fixings to make homemade chocolate covered pretzels decorated with tiny red and pink candies or sprinkles with the kids.
More Valentine's Day Ideas
Looking for more ways to celebrate Valentine's Day with your kids? Don't miss these sweet ideas:
Best Recipes for Kids
Get all the best tips for cooking with kids here.
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