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Bring romance and titillation to your baby-making time in the choices of desserts and sweets that you offer each other. Tantalize your senses and your sexuality with goodies that bring warmth and relaxation. Enhance your sexual desires and harness the powers that these foods bring to fertility.

Ever wonder why women are the ones who crave chocolate? Studies suggest that women are more affected by the “magic” of phenylethylamine (PEA, an endogenous neuroamine/antidepressant). Who cares that we cannot pronounce it, as long as it makes us very, very happy.

Oh, yes! A tantalizing little pleasure, chocolate is loaded with the stimulant PEA and therefore chocolate does it all, from something as wonderful as increasing energy to that pizzazz of stimulating sexual arousal and pleasure. Forget the appetizers and entrees and just make your chocolate goodies the entire meal! And as a touch of fertility enticement, some believe that green M&Ms are lusty little aphrodisiacs. Hey, green does mean go!

How about chocolate’s lusty little friend, vanilla. Vanilla’s scent not only calms and relaxes, but also acts as a powerful and mysterious sex enhancer. Experiment with your vanilla desserts in the forms of ice cream, cakes, smoothies… or drop a vanilla bean or two into your champagne fertility toast. Cheers to vanilla!

Let’s talk éclairs as a particularly powerful and well-endowed fertility dessert. The shape, the luscious creamy custard… we’re blushing at the sheer mention. But honestly, as far back as the Middle Ages, Liebesknochen (translation – bone of love), or what we call éclairs, were baked, eaten, and enjoyed as a fertility custom. Now that you know the significance, let éclairs work for you.

We can’t talk romantic desserts without raising awareness of the “raising” merits of pumpkin pie. The scent of any home cooked pie may tantalize your partner, but pumpkin pie does it all. Abundant in phosphorus, pumpkin pie is known to increase penile blood flow by up to 40%. And according to Dr. Alan Hirsch at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, the combination of pumpkin pie and lavender boosts penile blood flow as well. For your romantic fertility purposes, anything that lowers anxiety and increases the obvious is a winner, so bring on the pumpkin pie (and lavender, of course).

And then there is licorice (black only for fertility purposes). Honestly though, when is the last time you even thought about licorice? Yet this tasty treat is known to enhance erectile function, and as odd as this may be to believe, the combined aromas of licorice and cucumber are reputed to increase vaginal blood flow. Hmmm. The word licorice does mean sweet root, and even the ancient Hindus used licorice mixed with milk and sugar to increase sexual prowess. But the Irish seem to have the best name for licorice… Maiden Mills, which translated means sugar stick. Bring on the Maiden Mills!

A wonderfully romantic meal is certainly a tantalizing way to approach your baby-making, but there are times when you may want to jump right to dessert. And yes, you can count yourselves as dessert too.

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Authors are a mother (Sharon Couto) and two daughters (Audrey McClelland and Jane Porricelli). Authors of Preconception Plain & Simple – A Deliciously Smart and Sexy Guide in Preparing for Pregnancy. Contributors to Conceive Magazine (Winter 2006, Spring 2007), and Woman’s World (August 2005). Featured guest speakers on Conceive On-Air with Kim Hahn (December 2006). Founders of baby/family company Pinks & Blues, www.pinksandblues.com. Sharon is a mother of 4, and grandmother of 6/almost 7! Rhode Island College, BA. Boston University, M.Ed. Audrey is the mother of 2 young boys, and expecting another baby boy in April. Brown University, BA. Jane is a newlywed and mother of 2 dogs. Brown University, BA.