I love a good surprise, and these Valentine Hidden Heart Cupcakes are a perfect treat to surprise the one's you love. One bite (in the right direction - see Recipe Note below) and the recipient knows just how much you care. Valentine Hidden Heart Cupcakes are a perfect sweet to bring to a Valentine's Day party or to school with your children. Of course, your Galentine's and Valentine's will love them as much as the kids do!
I decided to stick with a vanilla theme for the cupcake and the buttercream icing, as I wanted the colours to contrast and show off the rich red velvet coloured heart centres. It's up to you which flavours you make - if you love chocolate, make chocolate cupcakes and icing or vanilla cupcakes and chocolate buttercream icing - it's totally up to you!
While you can make all of the cakes and icing by scratch, February is a busy month, so feel free to use mixes and pre-purchased icing if that makes your life easier. These cupcakes are about showing how much you care, not about how much time you spent in the kitchen baking.
I hope you enjoy these fun Valentine's Hidden Heart Cupcakes as much as we did!
Here's to sweets, treats and surprises!
Enjoy,
Krista xo
Valentine Hidden Surprise Cupcakes
Ingredients
baking spray
parchment paper
cupcake liners (36)
1 - 1" heart cookie cutter
1 recipe for Red Velvet Cake (you can find mine here)
1 recipe for Vanilla Cake (find a good recipe linked here)
1 recipe for Vanilla Buttercream Icing (I often play with the ratios depending on my use, but a good starting place for buttercream can be found here)
decorations - different size hearts, candy, Valentine's picks & signs
Method
Step 1: Red Velvet Cake Hearts
Using your preferred Red Velvet Cake recipe (or mix), make and bake one half sheet pan of red velvet cake about 1/2" thick. My Red Velvet Cake recipe made one 9" round cake (I cooled and then froze round cake for later) and one half sheet pan cake, about 1/2" thick. Spray round cake pan and half sheet pan with baking spray prior to adding batter.
Let red velvet sheet pan cake cool. Once cooled, use a 1" heart cookie cutter to cut red velvet hearts out. I cut 40, but only used 36. Crumble the remaining cake scraps and place in a bag to freeze for cake pops, or just snack on them like I did!
Step 2: Vanilla Cupcakes
Pre-heat oven to recipe specifications. Line muffin tins or popover tin with paper cupcake liners. Using your preferred Vanilla Cake recipe (or mix), make batter.
In the bottom of each cupcake liner, add 1 tablespoon of vanilla cake batter.
Take a cooled red velvet heart and place upright (pointy part down) into each cupcake liner, gently squishing down into vanilla cake batter to secure.
With a spoon, gently pour vanilla cake batter over top of each heart, to cover. Remember not to fill liners too full, as the batter will spill over when baking.
Bake cupcakes according to the recipe directions, usually 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the centre clean. Let cupcakes cool completely on a cooling rack before decorating.
Step 3: Decorate
To decorate, make one recipe of your favourite Buttercream Icing recipe (mine is linked above in ingredients). I chose to pipe the vanilla buttercream with a wide flower tip to get a swirl effect, but you can ice the cupcakes with any method or look you prefer.
Add some sprinkles and candy and you're ready to surprise the ones you love with a hidden heart!
Recipe Notes:
It is really important to mark the paper cupcake liners with a small black dot or pencil line so that you know which way the heart is facing. If you play roulet (maybe like I did!) and cut into the cupcake not knowing which way the heart runs, the hidden surprise looks kind of like a red glob in the middle instead of a heart. While the red centre glob is also a nice surprise, you've spent all this time, so you want your loved ones to see the heart shape instead!
So, do as I say, not as I did - you'll thank me later, ha ha!
Photo (above): Mark liners with a dot on the right and left of the heart at this stage to know the direction the heart is facing once the cupcakes are baked.
Serve cupcakes immediately or store in an air tight container refrigerated for up to 3 days.
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