Photo Gallery: Valentine's Day Sweets

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1. To begin, line sheet pans with wax paper. Melt the chocolate or candy coating; dip the strawberries up to the stem, and place them on a sheet pan. Once the sheet pan is full, place it in the cooler for three to five minutes to allow the chocolate to set. If you are preparing several pans at a time, you may leave the pans out and the chocolate on the first pans should be set by the time you finish the last pan.
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2. Fill parchment cones with various colors of melted chocolate or candy coating. Snip off the ends of the cones to create the correct tip size. Pipe zigzag lines across the berries, using two colors on each. Allow the piped lines to set completely, and then remove the strawberries from the sheet pan.
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3. Sell the strawberries individually out of the case or already packaged. Chocolate candy boxes make perfect packaging for these beautiful berries, and the packaged berries make a great gift for your customers to give.
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1. To ice the cupcakes, use the ﾓsnakeﾔ method. With a large round tip, pipe icing around the edge of the cupcake. Continue coiling the icing as you move toward the center. This is a very quick and easy icing method for any skill level.
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2. To save time, ice all the cupcakes with white icing, and add color with an airbrush. Airbrush color around the edge only. This method is faster and gives a two-tone look to the cupcakes.
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3. Pre-made sugar decorations are a big timesaver for cupcakes and are available in many varieties, colors and sizes. When using these decorations, stand them upright on the cupcakes instead of placing them flat. It gives the cupcakes more dimension and will help your products stand out.
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1. Use a large heart cutter to create small cakes out of quarter, half or full sheet cakes, saving time and the expense of miniature pans. The cutter used for these cakes is 7 ins. across at the widest point, creating cakes that fit nicely on an 8-in. board. Ice the cakes using a 2-in. cake icer tip, which produces a uniform layer of icing. Smooth the icing with a small spatula.
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2. Ice all the cakes with white icing, and airbrush the cake the desired color. This saves you the time of mixing individual icing colors. Placing a paper towel on the turntable catches any overspray as you airbrush, again saving cleanup time.
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3. Pipe an appropriate message using round tip No. 3. Take inspiration for the messages from the conversation heart candies, which have messages such as ﾓBe Mineﾔ or ﾓI Love You.ﾔ You can freehand the wording or use a projector for a cleaner look. For an up charge, you may want to offer custom messages.
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4. Finish the cakes by piping a simple border with tip No. 3. Another cute idea for a border is to use the conversation candy hearts. Or you may choose not to pipe a