Valentine's Day Sweets With A Cleveland Twist

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Tradition says to get your valentine a box of chocolates — but there are plenty of ways to stick to tradition with an added Northeast Ohio twist. 

Go Ahead, Eat The Glitter

Fear's Confections in Lakewood might have something specifically tailored to your favorite person's personality. For Star Wars fans, there are chocolates in the shape of Yoda, Darth Vader, the Death Star and more. For the gamers, there are chocolate Nintendo controllers, chess pieces or Dungeons and Dragons dice.

Owner Cassandra Fear calls Valentine's Day "Christmas Part Two" because Valentine's Day is her busiest holiday of the year, right behind Christmas and she brings out some special items for Feb. 14, including chocolate hearts with messages and terms of endearment — similar to the pastel-colored candy hearts, but made of chocolate. Fear also catches eyes with her chocolate-and-glitter-covered strawberries. Don't worry, the glitter is edible.

Fear's Confections also sells chocolate-covered strawberries without the glitter. [Gabriel Kramer / ideastream]

Local Art You Can Eat

Sweet Designs Chocolatier, also in Lakewood, had all of the drizzled and dipped classics and all of the heart-shaped boxes your heart could desire. But for Valentine's Day 2020, Sweet Designs put themselves to the test.

"We're looking to do something a little bit different from our normal, everyday, gourmet line. Kind of take it up a notch. Do something a little more upscale. A little bit chic," said Carly Moran, general manager of Sweet Designs.

The Sweet Designs staff includes a couple of local artists who helped conceptualize and design a new line of hand-painted heart chocolates. The multi-colored hearts are painted with color-infused cocoa butter.

Two artists, a portrait artist and a muralist, who work at Sweet Designs designed these colorful candies. [Gabriel Kramer / ideastream]

Sugary Floral Options

Maybe you're looking for a chocolate alternative. A Cookie and A Cupcake bakery in Tremont has "flowers" that won't die and a side of humor with the sugar.

This week, the bakery is featuring flower cookies, a "bouquet" of  flower-style icing on a variety of cupcake flavors — and some punny deserts.

A mini-cupcake tray reads "We Go Together Like..." and the surrounding cupcakes are topped with famous dynamic duos: a burger and fries, coffee and donuts, pizza and beer and more. Cookies with the same theme feature peanut butter and jelly and bacon and eggs.

"I'm a lover of sweets in general, but with a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get," said Syndee Bergen, co-owner of A Cookie and A Cupcake. "With the cupcakes you have a variety that you can pick out and personalize for that person."

A Cookie and A Cupcake's take on a bouquet of flowers includes plenty of icing. [Gabriel Kramer / ideastream] 

There's no shortage of Cleveland-style sugary options if you're looking to indulge someone — or yourself — this Feb 14.