38 Valentine's Day Desserts That Don't Feature Chocolate

Though chocolate seems to reign supreme as a Valentine's Day dessert option, there's a world of possibilities for celebrating your sweetheart that feature other fabulous flavors instead. So if you or your special someone aren't fans of cocoa, fret not — the list of chocolate-free desserts is pretty long. From fruit pizzas to berry cobblers, lemon cakes, and a sumptuous array of non-chocolate sweets and treats, your dessert choices can make superstars out of seasonal ingredients that will remind you that you don't really need chocolate to celebrate the day of love. 

Whether presenting them as gifts to their one true love, glamming up a Galentine's Day get-together, or simply sharing them with friends and family, creative bakers will find much to love in a collection of recipes that think outside the — chocolate — box when it comes to treating your loved ones to something delicious.

Few desserts are as warm and satisfying as rice pudding, and with a 15-minute recipe, you can create a soothing dessert for your Valentine's Day without spending too much time in the kitchen. A versatile base for other flavors, you can accent your rice pudding with an array of toppings, including the familiar raisins and cinnamon or something fresh and exciting like sliced almonds and maple syrup or a dollop of your favorite jam or marmalade. Even sliced fruit works great to add a tasteful touch of natural sweetness.

Recipe: 15-Minute Rice Pudding

Strawberries are the happy, heart-shaped valentines of the fruit world, making them the perfect topping for a chocolate-free dessert pizza. Four simple ingredients are all it takes to woo your special someone with a lightly sweet delicacy: roll-out sugar cookie dough, cream cheese, lemon juice, and a bevy of beautifully sliced strawberries. If the evening calls for added sweetness, consider drizzling the dessert with some honey or maple syrup.

Recipe: Easy Strawberry Dessert Pizza

Chocolate's less glamorous yet equally delicious sidekick, vanilla, gets its own time in the dessert spotlight as a Valentine's Day cake that couldn't be easier to whip up. Three simple ingredients are all it takes to make a moist and fluffy vanilla sponge. By hacking a boxed cake mix with eggs and ice cream, you take a super shortcut to Happy Heartsville with a dessert that can be enjoyed on its own or topped with fresh fruit or your favorite sauces.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Vanilla Cake

Blueberries and amaretto make an unexpectedly romantic pairing in a fruit-based cake recipe that could give chocolate a run for its money. A silky cream cheese frosting blankets this special creation in luxury, while toasted almonds sprinkled on top bring a welcome crunch to the party. This simple-to-make treat looks sophisticated on any dessert tray, ready to be enjoyed with coffee or tea spiked with a splash of extra amaretto. Make it for your Valentine's Day dinner date or as a decadent dessert to share with your kids. 

Recipe: Blueberry Amaretto Cake

Your special someone will go bananas for this moist masterpiece of a chocolate-free Valentine's Day dessert. Overripe bananas find new life in a batter that blends butter and brown sugar into a classic sponge rich with caramel-banana flavor. Soft cream cheese frosting lends just the right amount of tanginess, while scattered walnuts offer a bit of crunch to counter the tenderness. To monkey around with the formula, try a batch of peanut butter frosting with a sprinkle of roasted peanuts instead. 

Recipe: Banana Cake

Old-fashioned desserts like strawberry shortcakes never go out of style. The blend of biscuit-style shortcake, whipped cream, and sweet strawberries makes a harmonic mix your valentine will adore. Because these modest-sized treats are made in batches, there is plenty for your guests to have seconds or even thirds. To impress your loved ones even more with your baking skills, try whipping up a batch of homemade ice cream to replace the whipped cream. If you're indulging for the sake of love, you might as well put your whole heart into it!

Recipe: Traditional Strawberry Shortcake

Making a Dutch Baby for your own baby is a perfect way to celebrate the Day of Love! Using only butter, milk, eggs, and flour, this skillet-baked beauty of a dessert treat is simple to make and delicious to indulge in. The best part may be the skillet; it does double duty as the cooking pan and serving dish, saving you time and trouble when delivering the goods to the dinner table. A sprinkle of powdered sugar and some sliced fruit top things off nicely!

Recipe: Dutch Baby

With your slow cooker doing double duty as a baking oven, whipping up your chocolate-free Valentine's Day dessert is a piece of cake! A boxed yellow cake mix doctored up with butter for richness and bananas for smooth flavor transforms into a cake base that no one can resist. But the real magic happens with the vanilla pudding whipped topping decorated with banana slices and vanilla wafer cookies. The result is a dessert that's as pretty and delicious as anything your chocolate cookbook offers!

Recipe: Slow Cooker Banana Pudding Cake

Bring a timeless favorite to your Valentine's Day table with an old-fashioned coconut cake. The coconut lover in your life is sure to fall in love with a cake that includes coconut in several different forms, with coconut milk in the cake and the frosting and as a coating of toasted coconut for decorative topping. While it may not be everyone's favorite flavor, fans who relish coconut are sure to enjoy a dessert that amounts to a Mounds bar minus the chocolate coating, of-course!

Recipe: Coconut Cake

Cold weather celebrations like Valentine's Day don't stand a chance with the cozy warmth of this cherry pecan bread pudding. Cherries and pecans make an ideal flavor duet that brightens up soft chunks of bread and creamy custard. Prep time is a quick and breezy 15 minutes tops, but baking takes more than an hour, so remember to plan accordingly. With a bit of coordination, you can serve up a warm bread pudding topped with cream and start your own dessert-based love fest.

Recipe: Cherry Pecan Bread Pudding

The caramel-apple combination of a brown butter apple tart is enough to send your boo into Valentine's dessert dreamland. Preparing the batter without bursting the bubbles that make the cake, so light takes a delicate touch. But once the sponge bakes up and the tangy lemon glaze is added, you'll see why this sophisticated sweet is well worth the extra effort.

Recipe: Brown Butter Apple Tart

Fill personal-sized crusts with creamy lemon filling for tempting lemon tarts that will take your bae's breath away. These open-faced pies present a different take on lemon desserts, introducing butter and eggs in the creamy custard, creating a glossy lemon pudding. Though there's a tart citrus kiss in every bite, there's enough sweetness to make these personal-sized delights a treat that's best eaten slowly. Consider eating these lemon tarts with comforting warm beverages like coffee or tea to help balance the flavors as you indulge.

Recipe: Lemon Tarts

Few desserts say "amour" like a French apple tart. You can treat your better half to the best of Parisian baking with a rustic creation brimming with delicate apple and cream flavor. All it takes is 40 minutes to assemble a crust and pour homemade custard around simple fruit slices to create this classic bake. A snowfall of powdered sugar on top will remind your loved one that, even though it's chilly outside, good food with great company is a winning recipe for Valentine's warmth.

Recipe: French Apple Tart

Sugar cookie dough, cream cheese, and fresh fruit are all you need for this dessert party in a pan. An arrangement of berries makes a colorful kaleidoscope while providing bright flavors to contrast the cream cheese layer. With a buttery crust holding everything together, this light yet decadent fruit pizza brings layers of love to the party. It may not look like much when you start, but by the time you finish, you'll be wondering if you should slice into it or frame it to hang on the wall!

Recipe: Fruit Pizza

An Italian delight to stir enamored hearts, panna cotta is one of the truest European desserts without a drop of chocolate. This velvety smooth custard-like cream dessert is a perfect base for fresh fruit, toasted nuts, or even sweet biscuits to lend a touch of texture. A creamy treat like this doesn't come easily, though. Once cooked, you'll need to chill them in the refrigerator for four hours to make sure that they set, so it's best to prepare them well ahead of your Valentine's Day celebration.

Recipe: Classic Panna Cotta

Baked apples may be the easiest version of a warm and flavorful dessert that leaves chocolate in the candy store. The only prep involved is coring the apples and filling them with brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Bake the apples to bring out the juices and soften the apple flesh, and you have a timeless flavor combination you can top with whipped cream or serve a la mode. Think of them as crustless apple pies with no peeling or slicing required.

Recipe: Baked Apples

Keeping it simple is best, and even more so when it comes to making dessert for your loved one. With a 3-ingredient berry cobbler, you have the quick and easy fixing for a satisfying fruit-based dessert that will make you forget your love affair with chocolate in the past. All it takes is a box of yellow cake mix, a stick of butter, and a bag of frozen mixed berries to assemble a sweet and buttery cobbler ready to be topped with whipped cream or ice cream. Six tasty servings make this pan-style bake a fantastic dessert choice for your family-style Valentine's Day dinner.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Berry Cobbler

Bake a batch of Valentine's Day cream puffs with soft middles and tender shells. Sure, there's a little work involved to make the perfect choux pastry nest to cradle a dollop of cloud-light homemade whipped cream. But the finished puffs are a perfect example of authentic French pastry, and the taste and texture of the finished puffs are more than worth the extra trouble. With one bite of these sweet treats, your valentine will understand the meaning of true love — and you will too!

Recipe: Cream Puffs

A traditional spice cake from the South, hummingbird cake is a towering treat with bananas and pineapple providing sweetness, moisture, and flavor. Chopped pecans add texture, while the warmth from cinnamon and a tangy cream cheese frosting reminds us of a good ol' carrot cake but with a slightly different personality. More pecans around the base layer create simple adornment for a cake that doesn't need to be showy to be loved. Served fresh from the refrigerator, hummingbird cake is the kind of Valentine's Day dessert that will remind you that the holiday is about so much more than chocolate.

Recipe: Hummingbird Cake