With Valentine’s Day approaching, the pastry team at Turning Stone Resort Casino is working hard to provide guests with a smorgasbord of sweets to share with their sweethearts.

The offerings are a mix of old standards and new innovations.

“We really try to give people lots of choices,” said Pastry Chef Lorena Ortega. “Everybody has something they like, so we try to make some of the things we know people look forward to and mix them together with new ideas and sweets as well.”

One of the classic items returning this year: cake pops, which will be accentuated with chocolate ganache.

Another favorite item that’s sure to excite long-time guests: chocolate-dipped strawberries. Lorena and her team dip plump and juicy berries in white, dark, and red chocolate and put each of the treats on a stick so guests can eat them like lollipops. This makes it easy to consume the goodies while walking around the casino. It also minimizes mess.

Some of the new treats incorporate berries and berry flavors, too.

The strawberry champagne eclairs, for instance, have strawberry-champagne cream and are decorated with Chantilly cream and freeze-dried strawberries.

Lorena also said her team is making mini lobster-tail pastries (Italian Americans call them sfogliatella and pronounce the word, swee-ya-tell) with raspberry cream in the middle. She noted that each of these goodies has a tiny dollop of raspberry jam on top.

Finally, the pastry department will make two different types of cannoli for the holiday this year—strawberry cream like they’ve done in years past and a new red velvet option with traditional cannoli shells and red velvet cream inside. Lorena said she can’t wait to see these creations filling the cases at Opals.

“Love will be all over the place,” she said. “It’s always fun to celebrate with sweet treats.”