I've been really bad keeping up with the baking scene this year, but I definitely had to make time for some Valentine's Day baking.

Hearts. Always with the heart-shaped desserts in Feb.

My boyfriend loves two things: cheesecake and custard. So I decided to draw on his loves and combine them into four heart-shaped delectables for him to nom on Valentine's Day.

From left to right we have:

• cookies and cream cheese cake
• berry shortcake
• chocolate creme crème brûlée cheesecake
• lemon meringue custard tart

I basically took staple recipes and altered them to create something new. Cookies and cream was a generic cheesecake recipe using chocolate ripple biscuits (chocolate ripple cake is one of his favourite things, but making them heart shaped is tricky!). The shortcake features a raspberry coulis, topped with strawberries covered in melted jam. The brûlée has a mudcake base, topped with a generic cheesecake recipe with an addition of melted cocoa, in turn topped with the toffee coating of a brûlée. Finally, the tart is what you'd expect: shortbread base with lemon infused custard and toasted meringue!

Tobias could smell the treats and decided some sucking up was in order.

"Can I be your Valentine, too?"