This delicious post is going to be a little different. I wanted to share a decorating cupcake post as opposed to a recipe for cupcakes since A) I already have shared my go-to scratch recipes for cake and B) I am trying a new direction, sharing tips with you that will involve time savers. In this instance? Cake mixes and frosting flavor. All you need is the extras to make the cakes and patience. I used my regular butter cream frosting recipe but used 1 cup of shortening instead of 2 sticks of butter. Cake mix flavors were French Vanilla, Strawberry Supreme and Red Velvet. For the frosting, get a packet of frosting creations in Strawberry Shortcake. You can find the recipe for the frosting at the bottom of this post.

Okay so now…the decorations on top! These are all from Wilton. I happened to win a giveaway of theirs on twitter some months back and recently remembered I had a box full of fun goodies! For these cupcakes I used the Love Potion sprinkles, the butterfly baking cup and picks set and the Love Birds baking cup and pick set, both available here. I decided to to a heart on one side and either a butterfly or bird on the other. I think it is just enough fuss because the real star is the middles!

I got inspired from a pinterest pin but I had to abandon it because I didn’t have a little heart shaped cutter to make uniform cuts and the red velvet cake texture was more crumbly than the strawberry. What I did was bake both the red velvet and strawberry cakes pouring only about 1/3 of the batter in pans to make a thin cake. When the cakes cooled, I hand cut them into hearts, placed the hearts on parchment and froze them. While they froze I made the french vanilla batter.

Next I lined my cupcake pan, then got my frozen hearts from the freezer. I used one hand to hold the heart straight up in the middle of the liner and the other hand to fill around the heart using a spoon. Once I had enough batter to support the heart on its own I covered the tops. I baked the cupcakes off according to the directions and let them cool.

I frosted them using a big star tip and my frosting that I flavored with the frosting creations packet. Tastiest frosting ever, reminded me of the marshmallows in Frankenberry cereal!

Then it was time to cut. I tried to remember what direction the heart was going so as not to cut it in half and break the heart. I could see on the bottom some cake so I found it that way too. I was bummed when I cut into them because the heart shape was not there. But it still looked beautiful so I got over it fast. I think with some tweaking and a real heart shape cutter I could get the right result. But in the meantime, these cupcakes have a special flavor surprise inside that isn’t just a big glob of frosting or candy or anything, but a tasty and delicious color of cake that compliments the whole thing 🙂

 

If you have any questions let me know, the hardest part really is remembering where your middle is when it is heart shaped!