I used an ice-cube tray to make chocolate-covered strawberries, and it didn't make a mess but I still hated it

• I tried the ice-tray hack for making easy chocolate-covered strawberries.
• The final desserts looked awkward and were difficult to eat.

A few times a year, I like to get some fresh berries and a few bars of chocolate to make a special treat: chocolate-covered strawberries.

Although its ingredients are simple, this dessert can get quite messy when it comes time to coat and drizzle the fruit with chocolate.

So when I came across a no-fuss, no-mess hack online using ice-cube trays, I decided to give it a test run to see if it would be a viable option for my upcoming at-home Valentine's date night.

Read on to find out how it worked.

This hack for chocolate-covered strawberries involves a standard kitchen tool

A few websites and blogs have shared this trick, and it's framed as a simple and tidier way to make this treat. It involves filling an ice-cube tray with melted chocolate, placing strawberries inside each chocolaty mold, then chilling it all in the fridge until it's firmly set.

Truthfully, these bite-sized desserts didn't look very elegant in the reference photos, as the strawberries feature a large block of chocolate at their base.

But the hack seemed easy enough, so I broke out a couple of different ice-cube molds and got started.

I decided to try this hack with 3 types of chocolate

Some of these sites used a long ice-cube tray, but I didn't have one so I hoped my square or round ones would result in a neater look.

I started by individually melting semi-sweet, white, and milk chocolate in the microwave, then pouring each liquefied ingredient into the ice trays.

It wasn't a completely mess-free operation, but it was easier than dipping strawberries into hot, molten chocolate — the standard technique for this dessert.

This hack also seemed to waste less chocolate because I was filling up the molds instead of just coating the exterior of the fruit and letting the excess drip off.

I had a bit of leftover chocolate from each variety I melted, so I used it to coat extra strawberries using the normal method for comparison's sake.

The different methods produced some very interesting results

I first tried the strawberries that were in the round molds, which I figured would be better since the casts were smaller and left tinier chunks of chocolate at the base of the fruit.

But they were incredibly awkward to eat. I took a bite and the entire chocolate shell came off with only a small piece of strawberry to go with it.

The square-mold ones worked slightly better but were still awkward to eat

The strawberries in the square molds looked the weirdest, as they came out with a huge block of chocolate on the bottom.

I certainly wouldn't make these unsightly desserts for a party or date night.

They were, however, easier to eat than the ones from the round ice tray, because I could actually bite smaller pieces of the chocolate off and get more strawberry.

The chocolate-covered strawberries I made using the typical method were the easiest to eat

I didn't do the neatest job of making the normal chocolate-covered strawberries, but they were still more attractive and easier to eat than the ice-tray alternatives.

The entire fruit had a fairly thick, chocolaty coat, so every bite had the perfect ratio of ingredients. Plus I didn't have to nearly unhinge my jaw to get my teeth into it.

The type of chocolate also made a difference

I thought the semi-sweet chocolate worked the best with the ice-tray method, as it melted the smoothest of the three options I tested and also didn't burn when heated in intervals.

This variety also tasted the best because the darker and more-bitter chocolate balanced out the fruit's natural sweetness.

On the other hand, the milk chocolate was overwhelming sweet when paired with the strawberries and had tiny lumps throughout, even though it fully melted and didn't burn at all.

And the white chocolate smoothly liquefied, but burned pretty early on in the heating process, even when warming it in 15-second intervals and stirring often. It was also a little too sweet combined with the berries.

I wouldn't try this hack again

Even if I was absolutely desperate for chocolate-covered strawberries, I wouldn't use this ice-tray method again.

The final desserts were clunky and awkward both in appearance and function, as they didn't look very nice and were a pain to eat.

I'd much rather make a bit of a mess and have a beautiful platter of these berries that I could fully enjoy.