14 Easy Chocolate Desserts to Make No Matter Your Relationship Status

Valentine's Day and chocolate have gone hand in hand since at least the 1840s, when brothers Richard and George Cadbury began selling chocolates in heart-shaped boxes for Valentine's Day, establishing a tradition that remains today. If you've forgotten to purchase an elegant box of chocolates for your loved one, it's not too late to make something from scratch. Below, we've gathered our favorite chocolate dessert recipes—including an airy soufflé, flourless chocolate cake, and creamy pot de crèmes—that are as easy as they are delicious, and guaranteed to impress your significant other.

Chocolate Pot de Crèmes

Chocolate pot de crèmes—rich, velvety French custards—are easy enough to make on a weeknight, and luxurious enough for a special occasion like Valentine’s Day. Using a bittersweet chocolate with about 70% cocoa prevents the dessert from being cloyingly sweet, while a mixture of whole milk, heavy cream, and egg yolks produces a rich custard.

2-Ingredient Chocolate Truffles

Water and chocolate are all you need to make this luxurious dark chocolate ganache, which you can use to glaze cakes or fill pastries or turn into truffles.

Chocolate Mousse

Rich with bittersweet flavor and light as a cloud, chocolate mousse is a simple, elegant dessert. This method is foolproof: Melting chocolate together with the cream stabilizes the chocolate and prevents it from seizing. It also lightens up the chocolate mixture, making it easier to fold together with the egg whites without deflating the mixture.

Chocolate Soufflé

Making a light, airy soufflé isn't as difficult as it sounds: All you have to do is liberally butter and sugar your ramekins, melt your chocolate properly, and whip your egg whites well. While many soufflés are served with a sauce poured inside, this one stays moist enough on the inside that it's not entirely necessary. 

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Made with flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and a few other pantry staples, this cake has a moist, tender crumb and rich chocolate flavor.

Red Velvet Brownies

Topped with a tangy frosting, laced with bittersweet cocoa powder, and flavored with rich white chocolate, these brownies taste like a fudgier version of classic red velvet cake. Plus: You don’t have to bake, stack, and frost an entire cake.

Flourless Chocolate Lava Cakes

These molten chocolate lava cakes take just 30 minutes to make—and taste just like a pastry chef made them.

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Don't feel like cooking? Homemade hot chocolate is a perfectly acceptable dessert. White chocolate brings richness, body, and aroma, and its sweetness balances the bitterness of Dutch cocoa powder.

Chocolate Skillet Cake With Milk Chocolate Ganache Frosting

This chocolate cake topped with milk chocolate frosting couldn't be easier. The batter for the cake is made in the skillet it's baked in, and the easy, creamy frosting is made by hand—no mixer needed.

Devil's Food Cake

The most delicious chocolate cake also happens to be the easiest: No stand mixer, no whipping, no foamed eggs, no meringue, nothing. In other words, the perfect chocolate cake.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

No dairy, no problem: Puréeing ripe avocados with oat milk, agave syrup, and cocoa powder make for an ultra-creamy and velvety smooth vegan chocolate mousse.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Rich and pleasantly bittersweet with crisp edges and a fudgy interior, this flourless chocolate cake will keep you coming back for more. Espresso powder enhances the bittersweet chocolate's flavor, and whipping the eggs with sugar until they reach the ribbon stage—when the eggs have enough volume to leave a "ribbon"—helps aerate the cake.

Chocolate Cupcakes

These tender, deeply flavorful chocolate cupcakes take just 15 minutes to prep before baking—no stand mixer needed. A combination of bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened cocoa powder gives the cupcake its rich, bold chocolate flavor, while the fat from sour cream keeps the batter tender.

Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake

This cake is a streamlined version of former Serious Eats editor Stella Parks' devil's food cake. Acidic ingredients like coffee and brown sugar work with baking soda to help leaven the cake, and olive oil provides the cake with a mild, buttery richness.