Valentines Cupcakes
Valentine's cupcakes, here are two easy heart-themed ways to decorate cupcakes for Valentine's Day including how to make them heart-shaped!
Why This Recipe Works
- A very simple vanilla cupcake recipe
- A cute way to make heart-shaped cupcakes without a special heart-shaped cupcake pan.
- A cute valentines baking project for kids
Ingredients you will need
To make my valentines cupcakes you will need pink, red or white cupcake liners, ceramic baking weights, or balls of tinfoil, and the following cupcake ingredients
You will then need the following pantry ingredients to make vanilla glazed cupcakes
Vanilla Cupcakes
- eggs
- self-raising flour
- vanilla extract
- butter
- caster sugar
- milk
Valentine's glaze and decorating
- icing sugar
- a little more milk
- a bit more butter
- a touch more vanilla extract
- red food colouring
- sprinkles
Ingredient Notes and Substitutes
- Self-raising flour: If you only have plain flour available you can use
- 1 ¼ cups plain flour plus 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder.
- Caster sugar: Is not absolutely necessary, regular granulated sugar will be ok too, the texture with caster sugar is just a little lighter.
- Butter: This recipe will work with a full-fat margarine
- Milk: This recipe will work with any plant-based milk.
How to make heart-shaped cupcakes for Valentine's day
Below are illustrated step-by-step instructions to make my Valentine's Day Cupcakes, if you prefer just the written instructions then head straight to the printable recipe card below.
Prep: Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, (This will be 160 degrees if are using a fan-forced oven.)
Step one: Add all of the cupcake ingredients (wet and dry) including the whisked eggs into a large mixing bowl. Mix on slow until the ingredients are combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat for approximately 2 minutes until the cupcake batter is pale and creamy
Step two: To make a heart-shaped cupcake pick up a cupcake liner and firmly pinch a fold into the cupcake liner. This will form the indentation at the top of a heart.
Step three: Place a small amount of cupcake batter into the bottom of the pinched cupcake liner. (This helps hold it in place).
Step four: Place ceramic baking weights into the triangle created by the pinch in the cupcake liner. If you don't have ceramic weights you can use small balls of tin foil.
Step five Add a second scoop to the cupcake liner, you want there to be enough batter to two-thirds fill the cupcake liner. But don't work if there are a few gaps around the edges etc as the cupcake batter will expand and fill these while baking.
Step six: To make a mixture of differently decorated valentines cupcakes, I choose to only make half of my cupcakes heart shapes, for the remaining cupcake liners I just filled two-thirds full with cupcake batter to make traditional round cupcakes.
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Step seven: Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. When cooked the cupcakes will have risen, and be golden in colour and when you insert a skewer into the centre it will come out clean. Allow cooling before decorating.
How to decorate cupcakes for Valentine's day
Below are illustrated step-by-step instructions to make decorate Valentine's Day Cupcakes, if you prefer just the written instructions then head straight to the printable recipe card below.
Make vanilla glaze: place all the vanilla glaze ingredients into a bowl and whisk, and keep whisking until you have a smooth spreadable glaze.
If you want pink icing add a drop of red colouring to the glaze, to achieve the pink colour you desire.
If the glaze is a little thin add more icing sugar a tablespoon at a time, if the glaze is too thick add more milk 1 teaspoon at a time.
Heart-shaped Cupcakes: To decorate my heart-shaped cupcakes, I used white vanilla glaze and piped a heart shape onto the top of the cupcake. I then filled in the heart shape outline with more vanilla glaze. And sprinkled with some heart-shaped sprinkles!
Heart Decorated Cupcakes: To decorate my round Valentine's cupcakes, I spread the top of the cupcake with a pale pink vanilla glaze. I then placed a small heart-shaped cookie cutter on the centre of the cupcake and spooned pink and white sprinkles into the cutter. I carefully tipped off the excess sprinkles then removed the cutter to reveal sprinkles in a heart shape in the centre of the cupcake.
Other recipes you may enjoy
- Butterfly Cupcakes: A recipe my grandmother used to make for every special occasion.
- Unicorn Cupcakes: Another lovely way to decorate cupcakes
- Panda Cupcakes: Cute cupcake idea, perfect for a birthday party
- Gluten-free Dairy-Free Cupcakes: If you need a cupcake recipe for dietary needs, this could be the one you are after.
- Valentine's Treats for Kids: A great collection of valentines day themed recipes your children will love.
Valentines Cupcakes
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Equipment
- ceramic baking weights or tin foil
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes
- 2 eggs
- 185 grams self-raising flour 1 ¼ cups
- 125 grams butter softened
- 120 grams caster sugar ½ cup
- 80 mililitres milk One-third of a cup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla Glaze
- 150 grams icing sugar 1 cup
- 1 ½ Tablespoons milk 22.5 ml
- 1 Tablepsoon butter (softened) 15 grams
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Sprinkles as many as your heart desires
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius, (160 degrees if using a fan forced oven.)
- Step one: Add all of the cupcake ingredients (wet and dry) including the whisked eggs into a large mixing bowl. Mix on slow until the ingredients are combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat for approximately 2 minutes until the cupcake batter is pale and creamy
- To make a heart-shaped cupcake pick up a cupcake liner and firmly pinch a fold into the cupcake liner. This will form the indentation at the top of a heart.
- Place a small amount of cupcake batter into the bottom of the pinched cupcake liner. (This helps hold it in place).
- Place ceramic baking weights into the triangle created by the pinch in the cupcake liner. If you don't have ceramic weights you can use small balls of tin foil.
- Add a second scoop to the cupcake liner, you want there to be enough batter to two-thirds fill the cupcake liner. But don't work if there are a few gaps around the edges etc as the cupcake batter will expand and fill these while baking.
- To make a mixture of differently decorated valentines cupcakes, I choose to only make half of my cupcakes heart shapes, for the remaining cupcake liners I just filled two-thirds full with cupcake batter to make traditional round cupcakes.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. When cooked the cupcakes will have risen, and be golden in colour and when you insert a skewer into the centre it will come out clean. Allow to cool before decorating.
Decorating
- place all the vanilla glaze ingredients into a bowl and whisk, and keep whisking until you have a smooth spreadable glaze.If you want pink icing add a drop of red colouring to the glaze, to achieve the pink colour you desire.If the glaze is a little thin add more icing sugar a tablespoon at a time, if the glaze is too thick add more milk 1 teaspoon at a time.
- To decorate my heart-shaped cupcakes, I used white vanilla glaze and piped a heart shape onto the top of the cupcake. I then filled in the heart shape outline with more vanilla glaze. And sprinkled with some heart-shaped sprinkles!
- To decorate my round Valentine's cupcakes, I spread the top of the cupcake with a pale pink vanilla glaze. I then placed a small heart-shaped cookie cutter on the centre fo the cupcake and spooned pink and white sprinkles into the cutter. I carefully tipped off the excess sprinkles then removed the cutter to reveal sprinkles in a heart shape in the centre of the cupcake.
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