If you’re looking to put a little love into your Valentine’s Day treats this year, there’s no need to run out and buy a cartful of special ingredients or gadgets. Just grab a few heart-shaped cookie cutters with a bunch of different-size hearts, then you can quickly and easily make dozens of fun, heart-shaped foods for family meals, classroom snacks, Valentine’s Day parties, and lunchbox treats. Or, pick one of your favorites and make for your kids—they’ll love it.

We’ve found over 40 (!) ways to take a simple cookie cutter and use it to transform foods, both sweet and savory, into appropriately festive, heart-shaped treats for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, or dessert. That’s one mighty cookie cutter.

And, with Valentine’s Day falling midweek this year, we’re also offering plenty of shortcuts to make your week a little easier.

Top Image:  How Sweet Eats and It’s Always Autumn

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This post was updated for 2023.

40+ Valentine’s treats to make with heart-shaped cookie cutters

Recipe: Two Peas and Their Pod

1. Pancakes Start everyone’s day off with a stack of delicious, heart-shaped, whole-wheat pancakes with this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod. Look at those tiny, heart-shaped pats of butter that go so well with the naturally “heart-shaped” strawberries! Cut the notch from the stem a little more if needed to accentuate the shape.

And if you’d like a semi-homemade shortcut for a school morning, see our popular post about the best pancake mix hacks to make your flapjacks taste more like homemade.

Related: 10 delicious and unique pancake recipes for Valentine’s Day

2. French Toast It’s also easy to make Heart-Shaped French Toast with a single cookie cutter. Just follow the recipe at Happy Hooligans. Ooh la la!

3. Fruit Kebabs Thick slices of juicy melon–cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew– and berries become cute little heart-shaped fruit kabobs with this idea from This Healthy Table. Snip off the sharp end of the skewer before serving to kids.

Recipe: Sally McKenney

4. Chocolate Hand Pies Move over box of chocolates and give us a plate of these chocolate-stuffed hand pies from Sally’s Baking Recipes. We’re in love!

5. Toast Toppings Cuteness alert! The Heart Shaped Animal Toast Ideas from Hello, Wonderful require nothing more than a few ingredients, some heart-shaped cookie cutters of varying sizes, and a little time, but ohhhhh. . .they’d make my kids swoon.

6. Fairy Bread A kid-treat from down under, Fairy Bread becomes a heart-shaped snack in this super-easy Valentine’s Day snack idea from Daisies and Pie. Don’t skimp on the sprinkles: Any kind will do but we love the purple heart assortment from Fancy Sprinkles shown above!

Recipe: Stacie Billis

7. Heart-shaped Dog Biscuits Don’t forget your furry family member! Two paws up for these homemade peanut, butter, heart-shaped dog biscuits from Stacie Billis.

8. Marshmallows for Hot Chocolate If your Valentine’s Day is forecasted to be as cold as mine, warm them up with hot cocoa and little heart-shaped marshmallows cut out from a batch made using Belly Full’s recipe. Or, here’ s a tip: Grab a bag of Jet-Puffed Smore Marshmallows and cut out a heart from each little square. We won’t tell.

9. Brownies Of course, a classic idea is to take a heart-shaped cookie cutter to a cooled pan of chocolate brownies for a super-fast Valentine’s themed treat. Or follow the recipe for Fudgy Brownie Hearts with Raspberry Buttercream from A Farm Girl Dabbles. It’s one of our favorites, and includes our tip for how to make the quickest pink icing.

Pro tip: Make them even more fun with a little frosting, and write conversation heart sayings like QT PIE or KISS ME on top.

Recipe: The Bakermama

10. Heart Caprese Salad Slices of mozzarella are so easy to cut with a cookie cutter and look pretty in this simple Heart Caprese Salad recipe from The Bakermama. You’ll note the tomatoes are arranged in a heart shape too, and get info for how she dresses this all up to be extra delicious.

If you want to really get into the Valentine’s Day theme, we love this olivewood heart cheese board from Williams Sonoma that we just featured in our post 19 Valentine’s Day gifts for the heart of your home…the kitchen.  Approximately 18″x18″, it’ll hold quite a lot of your favorite munchies.

11. Sushi! We hadn’t considered heart-shaped sushi before, but it’s definitely the way to our heart (and stomach).  I really want to try this tutorial by Eat Smarter for smoked salmon sushi, and I bet my older kids will enjoy helping them too.

12. Cinnamon Tortilla Treats Turn store-bought tortillas into crispy, heart-shaped cinnamon-sugar tortilla chips in only a few minutes using this recipe from My Name is Snickerdoodle. Serve with her fruit salsa recipe for a relatively healthy but still fun after-school treat.

13. Quesadillas You know what else heart-shaped tortillas can become? Quesadillas! Make these cheesy hearts red simply by covering with salsa, or check out the red-heart quesadilla idea from Raising Lifelong Learners that features an all-natural food coloring idea.

And do you need a $60 handmade heart-shaped spatula from Beehive Handmade to lift your quesadilla out of the pan? No, you do not. But we can’t help it if our heart goes pitter-patter over this lovely Cupid-inspired kitchen tool. The heart wants what it wants.

Related: 19 Valentine’s Day gifts for the heart of your home…the kitchen

14. Conversation Heart Rice Krispy Treats Conversation Hearts Rice Krispie Treats from Two Sisters Crafting are so much fun to make, we’d get the kids involved in cutting out the hearts and writing special sayings on each. Makes a great classroom treat!

Recipe: Sally McKenney

15. Conversation Heart Cookies Or pen your sweet nothings on a batch of delicious sugar cookies with the recipe and instructions from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

16. Roasted potatoes No matter what you serve for dinner, these little heart-shaped roasted potatoes will be the star of the plate. Haniela’s recipe provides tips for getting extra-crispy spuds.

17. Roasted beets Or add a pop of color to your roasted potatoes with this recipe for heart-shaped roasted beets and potatoes from Tablespoon.com.

18. Fried Eggs Cracking an egg inside a larger cookie cutter couldn’t be easier. Good Housekeeping has the tips.

Recipe: Foxes Love Lemons

19. An entire snack board How much do I love this colorful and healthy Valentine’s Day snack board from Foxes Love Lemons? Using cookie cutters, this heart-themed charcuterie spread is perfect for a night in on Valentine’s Day watching movies — with the kids, or even your adult sweetheart. Grab some of those heart-shaped ramekins to hold dips or tiny nibbles.

20. Salad Toppings Another heart-shaped veggie idea: Use a tiny heart cookie cutter to make the cutest little Valentine’s Day salad toppings. Love all the ideas in this recipe from Jo and Sue.

21. Burgers Ground beef or ground turkey can easily be cut into heart-shaped hamburgers or veggies burgers for Valentine’s Day dinner, as seen at Happy Little Art. Tip: Make it easier on yourself and cut the buns into hearts for basically the same effect.

22. Eggs in Toast Start their day off by frying a heart-shaped egg in a piece of toast using the instructions on Scholastic. Also called Love Toast which is beyond adorable.

Recipe: Celebrate Creativity

23. Sandwiches and Chips Scroll to the very bottom of Celebrate Creativity’s post to see some savory ideas, including these heart-shaped sandwiches and homemade heart-shaped potato chips. Super easy to customize to your family’s tastes.

24. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches Sweet and creamy grilled heart-shaped sandwiches from Jennifer Meier at The Spruce Eats make a delicious lunch, easy dinner, or quick after-school snack on Valentine’s Day. Plus, we get to eat the edges that we cut out!

25. Pie Crust Cover a pie with pie dough hearts cut out with a cookie cutter for such a pretty topping. We love this homemade Valentine’s Day Cherry Pie from The Diary of Dave’s Wife, but we also won’t tell anyone if you use pre-made dough and canned pie filing.

Recipe: Well Plated

26. Chocolate Bark Two-ingredient Chocolate Bark Hearts get their crunch from an unexpected source, but I trust Erin at Well Plated for this ingenious idea.

27. Homemade Granola Bars  Grab this recipe for heart-shaped granola bites from 360 Family Nutrition. They only call for four ingredients!

28. Semi-Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches A pack of ice cream sandwiches and some festive sprinkles become a cool heart-shaped ice cream sandwich treat with this idea from JaMonkey. So easy too!

Recipe: Stacie Billis for Cool Mom Eats

29. Sweet Puff Pastry Tarts I swear, these are simpler than they look! Just grab a larger and smaller cookie cutter and you can easily make a few of these Nutella Heart Puff Pastry Tarts that our own Stacie Billis created. There’s even a handy video to help guide you through it.

30. Savory Mini Pies I’m pretty sure my heart — and all the rest of me — is already filled with cheese, though I think that Hungry Happenings has a slightly more appetizing idea with her Cheese-filled Pastry Hearts for Valentine’s Day made with melty mozzarella. They’re almost like mini calzones. Yum!

31. Meatloaf Comfort food at its finest, meatloaf can easily get the cookie cutter treatment for Valentine’s Day. We love Penzey’s recipe for heart-shaped beef meatloaf made with lots of delicious spices. Similarly, the Diva Dish has a recipe for heart-shaped turkey meatloaf; or if you’re not meat-eaters, see Pete and Buzz’s recipe for heart-shaped vegetarian meatloaf. You have choices!

Recipe: Sarah Hearts

32-35. Homemade Pizzas We’ve got 4 fabulous ways to turn pizza into a Valentine’s Day-worthy meal using a heart-shaped cookie cutter:

a.) from scratch, with a recipe from Sarah Hearts, that we featured in our roundup of 12 fun, easy Valentines treats for classroom parties featured on Cool Mom Picks;

b.) using a loaf of french bread, with this recipe from Workman Family;

c.) placing heart-shaped toppings on homemade pizzas like the ones from How Sweet Eats (seen at top of page);

d.) going semi-homemade with store bought pizza onto which you add your own heart-shaped pepperonis, then popping in the oven a few minutes to warm up.

36. Semi-Homemade Cookies Sure you can use those tubes of refrigerated dough, but these Red-Velvet Heart Crinkle Cookies from When is Dinner are nearly as easy. It takes only 15 minutes and 4 ingredients, starting with store-bought cake mix. Worth a look!

Recipe: The Decorated Cookie

37. Candy Heart Cookies Of course, a heart-shaped cookie cutter can be used to cut out…cookies! But check out how cool they look when covered in crushed candy hearts and mounted on a lollipop stick using this recipe and tutorial from The Decorated Cookie.

38.. Jell-O Cookies All the colors of the rainbow come together in these vibrant, fruity, and heart-shaped Jell-o cookies from Just Helen. Tip: Follow her link in the first paragraph to the actual recipe but don’t miss all her tips for how to get the brightest colors and best flavor.

39. Jell-O Jigglers Creamy Jell-o Jigglers in cherry, strawberry, raspberry, or watermelon make great handheld Valentine’s Day snacks when cut out with a heart-shaped cookie cutter. It’s such a simple idea you hardly need a recipe, but the brand’s own blog offers a recipe made creamier with the addition of milk.

Recipe: Spoon Fork Bacon

40. Strawberry Iced Cookies Let the kids put the candy eyeballs and smiles on these yummy strawberry-iced cookies from Spoon Fork Bacon.

41. A Candy Board If it looks to be one of those weeks, I say to go ahead and use your heart-shaped cookie cutters to hold candies and little chocolates. There are some really clever little ideas from Whimsical Whimsies on Instructables to make your candy buffet look as cool as this one. I loved the ruffled edges on these heart cookie cutters which would look so nice on a serving platter.

42. DIY Truffles I love making no-bake cookie balls at the holidays but never thought about using a cookie cutter to make Heart Shaped Oreo Truffles. Walking on Sunshine’s recipe has loads of photos so that you can whip up a batch to send to school or for a sweet treat for dessert.

43. Conversation Heart Cake Pops Tell them how you really feel with these delicious conversation heart cake pops from It’s Always Autumn (shown at top of page). We think they are 2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten. (shoutout to everyone who wrote this in my middle school yearbook)

Tags: cookies, cooking for kids, dessert, dinner, easy recipes, party ideas, recipes, snack recipes, snacks, tips and tricks, valentine's day