When I think of Valentine’s Day treats I immediately think of Conversation Hearts candies.

I love those little things.

I can remember as an eight year old girl sitting in my bedroom the night before Valentine’s Day, putting together my homemade Valentines to hand out at school the next day. I took great care to select each candy heart that would go inside the valentines making sure the right messages went to the right people.

To this day whenever February rolls around I can’t help but grab a box or two of the candy hearts while checking out at the grocery store.

So… naturally these little candy hearts were the obvious inspiration for my Valentine’s Day cupcake design.

I even got inspired to use my favorite Valentine Candies as an inspiration to make some tasty Brownie Pops you can see here.

I started with a basic boxed brownie mix and spread it out about 1/3 inch thick on wax paper, laid on a cookie sheet.

There wasn’t enough mix to fill the whole cookie sheet, but the batter was so gooey that I was able to spread it with a spoon to the desired thickness and it stayed in place.

I baked it at 350 degrees for 12 minutes until a toothpick came out clean.

After the brownie sheet was baked and cooled I placed the whole tray in the fridge for an hour to allow the brownie to firm up.

Next I used a small heart shaped cookie cutter to make my hearts.

I dipped the cookie cutter in powdered sugar to keep the brownies from sticking to it.

Again, after all the brownies were cut, I placed them back into the fridge to firm up again.

These melting candies can be found at most craft stores or baking supply stores. They come in all kinds of fantastic colors.

After microwaving the candies in a coffee cup for about a minute and stirring it until smooth, I placed a brownie on a fork over the cup, and began using a spoon to scoop the melted candy over it until it was covered.

Once the brownie was covered the melted candy was so thick that the heart had lost much of it’s shape.

I gently shook the brownie on the fork over the cup allowing excess coating to drizzle away from the heart and cause it to regain it’s shape.

Next I placed the candy heart onto wax paper and allowed it to dry while dipping more hearts.

I then repeated the coating process a second time on each heart in order to completely and smoothly cover each brownie.

After the two coats of melted candy have dried some of the hearts may still be miss-shaped. Simply use a sharp knife to carefully cut away excess candy around the edges.

Any rough edges that remain can easily be smoothed out with the warmth of your finger by gently rubbing them away.

Now it’s time to add all those fun messages.

Markers with edible ink can be found in the bakers aisle of your grocery store or craft store.

I prefer the look of the marker over piped candy or frosting because the effect of the marker better mimics the look of the stamped Conversation Hearts Candies.

These candy covered brownie hearts make a great little treat all by themselves, but they make an even better treat on top of some delicious cupcakes.

I chose Strawberry cupcakes to compliment the chocolate brownies and used food coloring to make pastel frostings that would match the candy colors.

If you want to play along…

Here’s what you need…

Brownie Mix and its required ingredients

Wax Paper

Strawberry Cake Mix

Cupcake Papers

White Frosting

Pastel Food Coloring

Pastel Melting Candies

Red Edible Ink Marker

Enjoy!

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