Sweets For Your Sweetheart

By Mary Beth Schwartz

Make this Valentine’s Day extra special for your sweetheart with delectable goodies from Lehigh Valley sweet shops.

Every February 14, lovers go out in search of the perfect Valentine’s Day gift. Red roses, jewelry, spa treatments, a dinner date, heart-shaped boxers. This year, consider the sweet tooth of your loved one with treats from around the Lehigh Valley.

Cupcakes

“Our cupcakes are muffin size – take a standard cupcake and times that by three. We can take any mixed drink, candy bar, any flavor you can think of, and create a cupcake,” says Owner Rebecca Zukowski of Blondies in Catasauqua. The cupcake bakery posts a different cupcake menu each day on Facebook. Customers preorder to ensure that they get their favorite flavors. Blondies lists its full cupcake catalog on their website, with over 150 varieties, including gluten-free.

“We will have special flavors for Valentine’s Day – ones that invoke romance, including Red Velvet, Dark Chocolate Brownie and Champagne. Just one bite and you’ll see how it is no surprise that Blondies cupcakes are a huge hit beyond the Lehigh Valley.

Fancy Fruit

For those who want something more creative than the standard fruit basket, there is Edible Arrangements. With locations in Easton, Allentown and Bethlehem, the business offers fresh fruit, a variety of dipped fruit, high quality products, and a mission defined by three simple words: to wow you. Delivery or pick-up, everything is fresh and made to order, seven days a week.

For Valentine’s Day, customers can choose The Lovely Berries Strawberry Box which features a variety of chocolate covered strawberries with Valentine’s sprinkles; or they can pick The Valentine’s Day Bouquet with pineapple hearts, chocolate covered strawberries and regular strawberries in a basket. “The Sweetheart Bouquet is the most popular – it is all chocolate covered strawberries in an arrangement,” says Chris Borka, manager of the Allentown location.

Custom Cakes

If custom cakes are what you crave, consider Piece ‘a Cake in Macungie. For Valentine’s Day, Colleen Laky, pastry chef and owner bakes cupcake bouquets using mini cupcakes. “It looks like a floral bouquet – there is a flower on each cupcake, such as a red rose,” Laky says. She also makes a four-inch cake perfect for two. According to Laky, popular flavors on Valentine’s Day include Chocolate and Raspberry, Red Velvet and Chocolate with Strawberry Cream. Also offered is a cake with a cheesecake center. All in all, there are 40 different cake fillings with flavors.

Candy

Finally, if there is a special sugarholic in your life, plan a trip to The Shoppes of Premise Maid in Breinigsville. This sweets village has three parts – the Ice Creamery, Bakery and Chocolate Shoppe. Valentine’s Day is even more scrumptious at Premise Maid. According to President Joe Damiano, the chocolate covered strawberries are a huge hit, as are the specialty one-pound custom heart boxes decorated in satins and bows. “There are heart-shaped cakes in the bakery, and special sundaes in the Ice Creamery. We have nonpareils with red and white sprinkles. For children, we have chocolate bars, sachets with Valentine’s candy, heart-shaped lollipops, and chocolate-covered roses. A new item we will also have is Lucky Charms turtles – chewy vanilla caramel mixed with colorful mini marshmallows drenched in Premise Maid’s Signature Milk Chocolate,” Damiano says.

Whether you opt for designer cupcakes, fresh fruit, a custom cake, or handmade candies, chocolates, baked goods, and ice cream, this Valentine’s Day is sure to be that much sweeter for your sweetheart.

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