Valentine's cupcakes recipe

Impress loved ones with these heart-shaped Valentine’s cupcakes. Top these soft vanilla cupcakes with white fondant and a gingham edible sheet. 

These Valentine’s cupcakes are one of our favourite Valentine’s Day cakes (opens in new tab). Shape these cupcakes into hearts by using heart-shaped silicone cases. This recipe is great for those who want to take their cake decorating ideas (opens in new tab) to the next level. Just like our Valentine’s hidden heart cupcakes (opens in new tab), you will need specific cake decorating tools (opens in new tab) to decorate these cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 150g caster sugar
• 150g butter
• 140g self-raising flour
• 10g cornflour
• 3 medium eggs
• 30ml milk
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• Cake release (to grease the silicone cupcakes cases)

For the icing:

• 200g of icing sugar
• 2 tsp water (more if you need it)

For the toppers:

• 300g white fondant
• 1 gingham edible icing sheet - View at Amazon (opens in new tab)
• Heart shaped cutters - 5cm, 2cm and 1cm
• Tooth pick for the stitch effect
• Red and yellow colouring

You will also need:

• 12 heart shaped silicone cases - View at Amazon (opens in new tab)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease your heart-shaped baking cases and place them on a baking tray.
2. Beat the sugar and butter with the vanilla essence until light a fluffy (about 5 minutes) Add 1 egg, 1 third of the flour and a splash of milk and beat until just combined and repeat until all the ingredients are combined.
3. Divide the batter between the 12 cases and bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. Remove and leave to cool until they are cool enough to ice.
4. For the toppers: Roll 250g of white fondant out to the size of the A4 icing sheet. Cut 12 heart shapes with the 5 ½ cm heart cutter. Lightly brush the top of the fondant with water or trex and cut out 5 ½ cm heart's from the icing sheet and stick to the top of the fondant heart.
5. Then take 50g of the fondant colour it cream with a touch of yellow colouring and cut 12 smaller 2cm heart shapes and stick with a brush of water to the top of the gingham hearts.
6. Then colouring what’s left of the fondant red, cut 12 - 1cm hearts and stick these to the centre of the cream heart.
7. Using the tooth pick, make stitch-like marks around the edge of the cream heart. Mix the icing up using 200g of icing sugar and 2 teaspoons of water to start with, add more if you need it until the icing is smooth and shiny. Spread the icing onto the cupcakes and place the topper on the top of the icing.

Top tips for making Valentine’s cupcakes

If you can't find the heart-shaped cupcake cases, fill normal ones with the mixture and put them in a muffin tray. Place a marble on one side, ideally at the top of each case, between the outside of the case and the muffin pan. The marble will help to create the ‘V’ shape turning the paper cases into heart shapes.

You might also like…

Basic cupcake recipe (opens in new tab)

Chocolate cupcake recipe (opens in new tab)

Vanilla cupcakes recipe (opens in new tab)