Heart-shaped pizzas are the next big Valentine’s Day trend

While candies, flowers, cards and fancy jewelry may be the most common Valentine’s Day gift, but one peculiar (and more filling) alternative is apparently gaining traction as the choice Valentine’s Day gift: a heart-shaped pizza.

As CNN Money reports, searches on Google for the term “heart-shaped pizza” is up a whopping 230% since January. Heart-shaped pizzas have actually been around for some time, but the “novelty” Valentine’s Day gift has been picking up quite a bit of steam lately, particularly in Illinois, Texas, and California.

Naturally, pizza chains big and small have caught on to the growing trend, and more and more will be offering heart-shaped pizzas at their restaurants this year, including popular pizza chain Papa John’s. The heart-shaped pizzas have apparently been successful for the chain, too–in 2011, more than 60,000 heart-shaped pizzas were sold, and the company expects that number to grow this year.

“We first offered them nationally three years ago, and they’ve become widely popular,” Papa John’s spokeswoman Tish Muldoon told CNN Money. “They’re popular with families who celebrate Valentine’s Day together.”

Papa John’s won’t be the only restaurant to offer heart-shaped pizzas, of course. Papa Murphy’s and Papa Romano’s Pizza have both confirmed they’ll be offering the Valentine’s Day-themed pizzas, and plenty of local restaurants across the nation will be doing the same.