Easy Valentine Cupcakes
Very easy Valentine cupcakes, using a standard chocolate cake recipe with fruit-flavoured buttercream. Perfect for a Valentines Day tea or as dessert
Servings: 10 cakes
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
Same weight of:
- 150 g caster sugar
- 150 g butter, at room temperature
- 25 g cocoa powder, the darker the better
- 125 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (5ml)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5ml)
- Large pinch of salt
For the buttercream:
- 75 g butter, at room temperature
- 150 g icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons red jam, rounded tablespoon (45ml) - see note
- Red colouring
Equipment
Instructions
PREPARATION:
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/ 170°C fan/ gas mark 5/ 375°F
- Line the muffin tin with 10 paper cases
For the cakes:
- Beat the cake ingredients together thoroughly(Butter, caster sugar, eggs, cocoa, flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract)
- Divide the mixture between the paper cases
- Cook for 15-20 minutes until the cake surface springs back when you touch it lightly with your fingertip
- Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.
For the buttercream:
- Sieve the jam (if using)
- Beat the softened butter and jam (if using) with an electric hand mixer. Add the icing sugar gradually, beating well as you go
- Add 2 drops of colouring if you want and mix in well. Add more colouring to get the colour you want
To decorate the cakes:
- Cut the tops off the cakes using a sharp knife. You will have a cone-shaped hole in the cake
- Trim the lid to flatten it a bit and cut a heart shape out from the underside
- Pipe a swirl of buttercream into the cake. Position the heart shape onto the cake
Video
Notes
Jam: Any red jam will do. If you want an even colour you will need to sieve it to remove the fruit or you can use a seedless jam. Using jam means that you need less food colouring, but you could do without.