Tasty treat that says 'I love you'

Anna Grazioli with the Cupid inspired icecream that their Queens Street shop is doing for Valentines Day. Photo / Greg Bowker

It could be the icecream to melt your Valentine's heart. An intricate winged cupid, a handcrafted heart and bow, filled with rum and caramel - painstakingly assembled for more than an hour by a famous Italian icecream designer.

And like all things romantic, it's designed to be shared.

Dessert designer Giapo Grazioli from Giapo Haute Ice Cream on Auckland's Queen St has created an icecream especially for Valentine's Day. And in true romantic fashion, it is named "Cupid".

"It's a limited edition and we have been busy making about 12-15 a day," he said. "It takes about one hour and 15 minutes to make each one so we will only have about 50."

His love-filled creation, being tasted at right by his wife Anna, will retail for $22.

Grazioli is renowned for his scientific and artistic approach to sweet sensations and is always experimenting. Last year the Auckland-based Italian, in love with all things Kiwi, created a Jelly Tip like no other.

He used a 3D printer to create the raspberry-shaped mould and a Bosch grinder to shape the hand-rolled waffle cone for his Jelly Tip. The jelly was infused with sauvignon blanc, hollowed out and filled with white chocolate then the handmade waffle cone filled with vanilla icecream.

"That was my most popular."

He also created a "Freedom of Choice" icecream to celebrate Bruce Jenner's transformation into Caitlyn Jenner last June and a $500 sorbet made of Cristal Champagne and 24-carat gold for charity.