Valentine's Day Cupcakes!

I had so much fun with these Valentine's Day Cupcakes! 

I made red velvet cupcakes from Bakerella:

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-2 oz. red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line trays with cupcake papers.
Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together with another wire whisk.
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
Pour into cupcake pans and drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
Bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Then I made a buttercream frosting from My Baking Addiction.  I know that red velvet is normally paired with a cream cheese frosting, but I prefer it with buttercream!

Buttercream Frosting:

4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
pinch of fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
 

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy.
Slowly add in confectioners sugar and continue creaming until well blended.
Add salt, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk.
Blend on low speed until moistened.
{You can add an additional 1 to 3 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk until you reach the desired consistency.}
Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.

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I did three different styles of frosting.  The first is a piped swirl:

 with a cute fondant heart

 with a red heart confetti

  with a sweet fondant heart

 

 

Then I did a spread frosting:

 

 with a fondant strawberry

 with a fondant blossom



And last, two types of peaked frosting:

 with fun little flags

 

The flags are just patterned tape that I've wrapped around a toothpick!  I did the same thing for the banner (seen in the first photo) but wrapped them around bakers string.  I used tape from Martha Stewart that I bought on Amazon.

I had a blast making these, and am SO looking forward to giving them to friends and family.

- Sugar Baby