Valentine's Cupcakes
Pink Curl Cupcakes
To decorate the cupcakes I first coloured up some vanilla buttercream with a pink colour paste to make a soft, rose pink shade. As my better half likes his classic vanilla thats why I used vanilla but of course a strawberry buttercream or white chocolate flavoured ganache would be yummy. When the cupcakes had cooled I used a palette knife to cover the top of the cupcakes with a nice smooth layer of the buttercream, then sprinkled over a generous amount of strawberry curl sprinkles making sure they were evenly spread and covered most of the top. Then I simply placed a white assorted heart decoration in the top. These edible decorations are great as they have different styles and designs so each cupcake would be slightly different. You could also add a red/pink heart shaped wrapper to the cupcakes too to make them extra special.
ALTERNATIVES
Because the assorted heart decorations come in different shades you can darken or brighten the colour of the buttercream to suit, as well as changing the colour of the paper cases. We also have red heart sprinkles which would also work well. But the tip here is the make sure all the colours (cupcake case, buttercream, sprinkles and topper) all coordinate and match.
TOP TIP
These cupcake work best when you have some height to them and it makes a nice dome shape when baked, so fill your cupcake cases Ύ full with your cupcake batter.
Doubleheart Cupcakes
These are a little bit more tricky than the pink curl cupcakes but not too much!
I started off with some plain vanilla flavoured cupcakes (as requested by my dearest!) but you can of course use whichever flavour you like and I used the
red paper cases
this time. While the cupcakes where baking / cooling I made and gathered up the other things that I would need: the buttercream, double heart decorations,
coloured coarse sugar
and scroll wrappers. For the buttercream I tried to match the same shade as the red heart decoration which was a soft red (I used poppy red paste for this but just a touch!). I used a
Wilton No 21 star piping tube
in my piping bag (I find using an
adapter
is much easier with my piping bag as the piping tubes have a tendency to slip out). When the cupcakes had cooled I piped the cupcake in one motion (starting in the centre working outwards, then working inwards and upwards) but pipe the cupcakes any way you like or feel comfortable with. There are some great tutorial videos on You Tube if you want a little bit of a refresher.
I then placed 3 x
double heart decorations
into the buttercream. I then sprinkled the cupcakes with a small amount of coarse white sugar that I had tinted to match the buttercream colour (this is easier than it sounds!!) Simply place a small amount of white coarse sugar in a small tub or pot (or even an egg cup) and add a little
edible lustre
or blossom dust the same shade as you want the colour to be. I used Sugarflair red sparkle lustre dust this time, and simply swirl / shake around. The white sugar quickly picks up the colour and voila a unique, colour matching sprinkle! Then simply sprinkle over the cupcake. To finish I attached a cupcake wrapper in a cream shade.
ALTERNATIVES
Well the sky is the limit here there are all sorts of colour and design combinations you could use what about using gold heart dragees, with coordinating gold sugar sprinkles and maybe a animal print wrapper?! Whatever you do just make sure the colours and sprinkles you use go well with each other.
TOP TIP
Piping onto a flatter cupcake surface is a little easier than if you have a very domed shape.
