Sugar Shock: A Little Sweet and Simple

Love is in the air. Oh, how sweet it is. Saccharine clichés ad nauseam. We’re coming up on Valentine’s Day, and while you may have complicated feelings about the holiday itself, Feb. 14 doesn’t have to be filled with dread or pressure to impress the people you love. Just look at Valentine’s Day as another day to celebrate love of all kinds! Love of cookies! Love of cake! Love of yourself! Love of the fact that some of Nashville’s best treat makers are creating some especially delicious seasonal specials that you can enjoy with or without a partner!

Below is a rundown of where to find some of this season’s especially sweet offerings, and proof of loving or being loved is not required for purchase. You can share them, or you can keep them all to yourself. Besides, Lizzo said it best in the song “Soulmate”: “Yeah, I’m my own soulmate / No, I’m never lonely / I know I’m a queen but I don’t need no crown.”

To bury yourself in some absolute decadence, head to the recently remodeled Goo Goo Chocolate Co. on Third Avenue downtown for The Encore, the shop’s white chocolate Premium Goo Goo. It’s crammed full of red velvet fudge, cream cheese ganache, crushed Oreos and vanilla nougat.

“We also just launched our line of 12 small-batch, hand-painted bonbons, which I am truly excited for,” says Goo Goo Cluster culinary director Mike Colón. “It is a program I have been trying to launch for the past three years, and it is finally time!”

While you’re there, try out the shop’s new build-it-yourself Goo Goo station. They’ve installed an electronic ordering system where you can create the Premium Goo Goo of your dreams, filling it with your choice of more than 20 ingredients — including potato chips, breakfast cereals, various chopped nuts, two different kinds of caramel, Nutella and more. Your personalized dessert will be ready to take home faster than you can say “Valentine’s Day is a bullshit holiday invented by greedy capitalists looking to make a quick buck off people who are being forced into consumerism and are unnecessarily spending money to prove their love is real or soothe their own insecurities over not having a romantic partner.”

Sorry, I got off track there for a second.

As for other local options, Colón swears by Pink Door Cookies’ Wedding Cake Cookie — an almond-and-vanilla cookie topped with a raspberry glaze, lemon frosting and sprinkles — and Music City Chocolates’ new heart-shaped bonbons. They come in boxes of four, and flavors include strawberry with ruby chocolate, passionfruit, honey and salted caramel.

Music City Chocolates, owned by chocolatier Ariel Mayberry, doesn’t have a retail space. But you can order sweets online at musiccitychocolates.com for pickup, delivery or nationwide shipping.

“She does truly beautiful work, and I’ve loved watching her grow in this field since we worked together at the Thompson,” Colón says of Mayberry.

At Bubble Love in the Nashville Farmers’ Market, owner Anna Fields has whipped up a February special filled with love. In her White Chocolate Crush drink, Fields has replaced the usual boba with adorable strawberry heart jellies. Cute! She’ll also be serving up Love Potion, a “nectarine-like concoction of pomegranate and peach with gold dust and hearts.” 

If you’re stopping by Bubble Love, Fields also recommends hitting up Music City Crepes for a strawberry-Nutella crepe, or you could stop by the East Nashville or Richland Park farmers markets for Cocorico’s gluten-free chocolate cake. “Amazing alone, even better warm with ice cream,” Fields says. “It’s everything I love — small, decadent, not too sweet, gooey.”

The folks at East Nashville’s vegan biscuit shop Guerilla Bizkits are participating in a Valentine’s Day pop-up at L&L Market on Saturday, Feb. 12, from noon until 4 p.m. G.B. will be selling “bizkit bouquets” and vegan treat boxes — macarons, cakesicles, croissants and more — from their partner company Peace and Pastries. There will be several more vendors, food trucks and live music too.

What treat does Guerilla Bizkits culinary director Ali Humbrecht recommend for Valentine’s Day?

“One-thousand percent The Grilled Cheeserie’s vegan milkshake,” she says. She notes that The Grilled Cheeserie is where she and her Guerilla Bizkit business partner and fiancé Zach Halfhill met.

“I was holding down the front of house solo, ringing up the customers and spinning the milkshakes, and Zach popped in,” she says. “Their basic vegan coconut shake is good as it comes, but you can also add strawberry preserves, peanut butter, banana or chocolate syrup to spice it up a bit.”

Aw, sweet! Maybe you’ll luck out and meet the love of your life too!

Crystal Flynn of Butterfly Bakehouse will be selling Valentine’s Day-themed sugar cookies at Crieve Hall Bagel Co. from Feb. 6 through 20. Flynn’s iced cookies are edible works of art — so much so that she was invited to appear on the Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge last year. While you’re at CHBC, Flynn recommends grabbing a chocolate chip or cinnamon-sugar bagel, and she’s also a fan of licensed home bakery The Chambray Apron.

“I would love to grab a Valentine’s treat box from The Chambray Apron, which includes a variety of delicious treats such as gluten-free/vegan tahini pistachio truffles,” she says.

Caity’s Pies won’t be doing any Valentine’s Day specials this year — co-owner Cait Guszkowski is on maternity leave! — but there will still be some showstopping pies, including the bakery’s beloved Super Bowl Pie, a peanut-butter-pretzel pie topped with muddy buddies, and the Caramel Delight Pie, a pie inspired by the Samoa Girl Scout cookie. You can order pies — in two sizes — for delivery via Hot Poppy, the local grocery delivery service, or pick them up at the East Nashville and Richland Park farmers markets.

Guszkowski knows what’s good in this city. She wisely recommends “whatever Rebekah Turshen and Abigail Navis-Black are getting into over at City House. They’re the real MVPs.”

I couldn’t agree more, and this year’s City House offering proves it. The restaurant’s holiday-themed cookie box is filled with chocolate-caramel alfajores heart cookies, vanilla sugar sprinkle heart cookies, strawberry marshmallow glitter hearts, red hot cinnamon Aleppo chocolate shortbread heart cookies, chocolate espresso and candied orange cookies, and buttermilk cornmeal cookies. That’s 24 cookies total! You can order yours at cityhousenashville.com.

How can anyone hate Valentine’s Day? Look at all the treats we get to eat! Love really is all around.