Indulgent, romantic and sweet enough to make that special someone in your life smile. Best made on the day of serving as the chocolate makes strawberries sweat. They are at their best if eaten within 8 hours of making them.

INGREDIENTS

• 8 large, ripe strawberries
• 200g white, milk or dark chocolate melts (see note)

To decorate

• pink food colouring (for white chocolate)
• edible gold or silver spray
• metallic pink edible lustre dust
• miniature pink hearts
• pink crystals

METHOD

1. Line a tray with baking paper.
2. Melt chocolate by placing it in a small heatproof bowl and microwaving for 1 minute, stirring every 20 seconds, until melted and smooth. To make pink chocolate, melt the white chocolate and use as much as you need before colouring the rest. Stir in a few drops of pink food colouring, adding more as you need until you get the colour you want.
3. To coat, hold the strawberry by the stem and gather the leaves together. Dip the strawberry into the chocolate, turning to coat all over. Allow excess chocolate to drip off for a few seconds then place on the paper. Repeat with remaining strawberries then refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set before doing drizzles.
4. To drizzle, spoon a bit of melted chocolate into a small resealable plastic bag. You may need to rewarm it in the microwave for 5 seconds. Snip a tiny corner off the bag and drizzle chocolate over the chilled strawberries in whatever pattern takes your fancy.
5. To decorate, follow packet directions to decorate the strawberries with metallic dust, either by brushing, spraying or sprinkling. Add your chosen decorations then chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 8

Note: The chocolate quantity provided allows for coating 8 strawberries, plus extra for drizzling. Mix and match chocolate colours as desired. I used ⅓ dark chocolate, and ⅔ white chocolate (half of which I coloured pink).

This recipe features in RecipeTin's three-course Valentine's Day menu.