Take the Cake: Valentine’s Day Cupcakes

Decorating cupcakes on Valentine’s Day is the perfect way to let your little loved ones know how much you care.  After all, everyone loves a sweet and tasty treat.  At Nutphree’s Cupcakes, decorating cupcakes for Valentine’s Day is one of our favorite things to do to celebrate this day of love.  The possibilities are simply endless.

For Valentine’s cupcakes, we prefer to use our red velvet or chocolate cupcakes as a base.  If you don’t like chocolate, though, vanilla cupcakes with just a hint of red food coloring make for a perfect base as well.  We also prefer to use a white frosting like a buttercream or cream cheese. This allows us to add a hint of red food coloring to make a festive pink frosting.

Now to make your cupcakes even more appealing, try creating them in a heart shape.  There’s no need to purchase a Valentine’s Day cupcake pan that you’ll use only once a year.  Instead, place a small marble or a half-inch ball of aluminum foil between each liner at one side of the tin. This will push the liner into the batter to form the notch in the heart.  Be careful not to overfill the liners with too much batter, though, which will take away from the heart shape.  Filling the liners about two-thirds full should do the trick.

Once your cupcakes are done baking, be sure to let them cool before frosting.  Then the real fun begins.  There are so many possibilities when decorating these cupcakes.  Because Nutphree’s Cupcakes is a nut-free bakery, we take a healthier approach to decorating.  Strawberries naturally make a nice heart shape.  By simply cutting them in half and removing the top portion, you can make heart toppers that appeal to the eyes and the taste buds.  Fresh fruits always add a little extra “wow factor” to sweet baked goods.

~By Brian Walker, co-founder, Nutphree’s Cupcakes