Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, and some of you parents just got told that tomorrow you need to bring in a delicious and cute V-Day treat for the entire class. Nice notice, isn’t it? Well, don’t let the last-minute-ness of your school get you down, as I’ve got a very easy, no-bake recipe right here that will make hearts of all-ages go a-flutter.

Thanks to the 24/7 MOMS and Craft-O-Maniac Facebook Pages for the lovely inspiration. I took a recipe at 24/7 MOMS for a punch-out pound cake dessert and mixed it with Craft-O-Maniac’s, no-bake idea of dipping wafer cookies in candy coating and decorating with holiday themed sprinkles. Result: RMT’s heart-shaped, no-bake, bite-sized candy-coated sweet cakes. Go ahead, fall in love… it’s so easy!

Here’s what you’ll need: One store-bought pound cake (Trader Joe’s has a fresh one in their fresh bread area for much less than those frozen, name-brand ones); a package of CandiQuik (or vanilla or white chocolate candy melts; I get the CandiQuik brand at Stater Bros. grocery store; if you cannot find this, then other candy melts are available at local craft stores like Michael’s); a 1″-to-2″ sized heart cookie cutter (or other Valentine-themed cutters); candy sprinkles; and about 30-to-45 minutes (plus extra time for refrigeration, which a day ahead can be overnight).

First, take the pound cake and cut it into three or four horizontal strips. The thickness of the strips should not be more than your cutters or it might be difficult to make clean punches. I also refrigerated the pound cake first to have a firmer cake to slice (both a slicing and serrated knife will do the job here on a cold cake). Then make your shapes from each slice. Yes, there will be some left-over scraps here, but trust me when I tell you that they will not go to waste. Your kids will love eating them as part of their Valentine’s Day breakfast with strawberries, or you can mix them with some berries and cream for a quick holiday dessert for the entire family.

Once you have your pile-o-punched hearts, you are ready to dip! Melt the white chocolate or candy melts as directed on the package. Take each shape and dip one side in the melted coating and place naked cake side down on plates to set up. But before completely setting, I’d decorate about 6 cakes at a time with candy sprinkles. Once I filled a plate, I’d refrigerate it to quick-set the cakes. This step came in especially handy for me since I was doing these about one hour before leaving for the particular party that I made these for!

I also recommend storing the completed cakes in a sealed container if making a day ahead and refrigerating overnight. Don’t worry about consistency; pound cake comes to room temperature and retains its form very well after refrigeration due to its ingredients (which are basically sugar, flour, eggs, and butter).

If you want to do other dipable treats, pretzels and sandwich cookies also work well here (no cookie cutters needed either). You could also reserve some of your melted white candy or chocolate and dye some pink with a little red food coloring (or other natural alternative food dye) and make pink-coated cakes or thinly pipe the pink coating atop the white cakes in different designs. Now that’s sweet.

RMT’ers, what are some of your favorite last-minute holiday recipes for the masses (or classes)?