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Cupcakes & Muffins

Hidden Heart Valentine’s Cupcakes

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Delicious vanilla cupcakes with creamy frosting and a surprise hidden inside. Who needs roses for Valentine’s Day when you can make someone tasty Hidden Heart Valentine’s Cupcakes to share the love?! 

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day is not something Mr Curly and I have ever really celebrated. We definitely don’t go out to a restaurant; but I am quite lucky and do often receive flowers.

Whether you like to go all out or take a far more casual approach to Valentine’s Day, these Hidden Heart Valentine’s Cupcakes are a great way to show your special person some love.

Whether that be your friends, family or partner; these would bring a smile to anyone’s face.

If cupcakes aren’t your Valentine’s thing, how about Chilli Cheese Hearts instead? Surely they won’t be able to resist cheese!

Making these Hidden Heart Valentine’s Cupcakes

I saw the idea for these cupcakes in Pinterest years ago so they aren’t a new idea. However I wanted to adapt them to use my favourite cupcake recipe to make them super tasty.

This is because a lot of the recipes I did find were American and used ‘cake flour’ or box cake mixes. Firstly I’m still confused what cake flour is – even after googling it; and also I will never use a cake mix to make cupcakes!

These cupcakes look so simple and elegant on the outside and then when you bite into them you find a brilliant bright red heart.

These Hidden Heart Valentine’s Cupcakes do take a little longer than a standard cupcake but they are very straightforward to make.  The finished look is really worth the extra little effort!

Use gel food colouring

When making the red sponge for the hearts, I recommend using gel food colouring. Wilton and Sugarflair are good brands to use as they provide really vibrant colours.

You can use supermarket food colouring but you will need to use a lot. I’ve made these cupcakes using the supermarket colouring before and I had to use two tubes!

It is always better to add small drops of food colouring and build it up. You can always add more but you can’t take it away!

Using butter or margarine

The recipe suggests using unsalted butter which can be used for both the cupcakes and the frosting.

You do need to make sure it is softened so it creams easily with the sugar to make the cupcakes and with the icing sugar for the frosting.

I do often use margarine instead of unsalted butter in the cupcakes though. This is because you can use it straight from the fridge. More often than not I am too impatient to wait for the butter to soften.

You cannot use margarine for the frosting though, this needs to be unsalted butter.

How to decorate these Valentine’s Cupcakes

I wanted to keep the decoration quite elegant and simple so I decided to use a large star tipped nozzle (Wilton 1M) to create a rose effect.

You can do this by starting in the centre of the cupcake and piping in a circular motion until I reached the edge of the cupcake. As you reach the edge if you release pressure from your piping bag and then quickly move the bag away you should get a nice clean finish.

If you wanted to, you could roll out some red fondant and cut a small heart out to add to the end of your piped rose. Alternatively if you aren’t confident piping a rose pattern, pipe in whichever pattern you like.

You can also go as crazy as you like with the decorations. Decorate these cupcakes however you like.

Change up the frosting

You can also use flavoured frosting if you would like. I’ve made these with cherry and raspberry flavoured frosting which went really well with the vanilla in the cupcakes.

If you want an extra luxurious touch, you could frost these cupcakes with my Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

These cupcakes aren’t as tricky as they might look at first glance. They do really provide the ‘wow’ factor though. Happy Valentine’s Day!

What to do with the leftover red cake 

Once you have cut out the heart shapes from the red sheet cake, you will have some offcuts. 

These obviously make a great chef’s perk and you can nibble on them as you make the rest of the cupcakes. 

You could also crumble it up and use it to decorate the finished cupcakes. 

How long will these cupcakes keep for?

These cupcakes will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container. You don’t need to worry about keeping them in the fridge, they are safe to be kept in a cool place.

However if it is a particularly warm day, I would recommend putting them in the fridge so the frosting doesn’t melt.

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5 from 15 votes
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Hidden Heart Valentine’s Cupcakes

Delicious vanilla cupcakes with creamy frosting and a surprise hidden inside. Who needs roses for Valentine’s Day when you can make someone tasty Hidden Heart Valentine’s Cupcakes to share the love?!   

Course Cupcakes
Cuisine British, International
Keyword Cupcakes, Valentine’s, Hidden Heart
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 28 minutes
Servings 18
Calories 451 kcal
Author Curly

Ingredients

For the red heart sheet cake

  • 75 g unsalted butter softened
  • 75 g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 75 g self raising flour
  • Red food colouring (appox ½ tsp)

For the cupcakes

  • 250 g unsalted butter softened
  • 250 g caster sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 250 g self-raising flour

For the buttercream

  • 200 g unsalted butter softened
  • 400 g icing sugar
  • 3-4 tbsp semi skimmed milk

Instructions

  1. Start by making the red cake mix for the hearts. Preheat oven to 170ºC (fan assisted, 190ºC non fan) and line a 20x20cm square tin with baking parchment

  2. Beat the margarine and sugar together until pale and fluffy
  3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and slowly mix again and then add the flour and mix until combined
  4. Add enough food colouring to make the batter a bright red colour
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth flat. Bake in the oven for approximately 14 minutes until a cocktail stick comes out clean
  6. Allow the cake to cool slightly
  7. While you are waiting for the red cake to cool, make the vanilla cupcake batter in the same way as you made the red cake batter (obviously leaving out the red food colouring!)
  8. Once the red cake has cooled, cut out hearts using a small heart shaped cutter
  9. Line a cupcake tin with cases and fill each case with approximately 1 tbsp of the plain cake batter. Smooth the cake batter to over the bottom of each cupcake case
  10. Place a heart standing up up in each of the cupcake cases
  11. Add more of the plain cake batter to each cupcake case so that it is roughly ¾ full – don’t panic if this doesn’t completely cover the red heart
  12. Bake in the oven for 14 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the tin for a few minutes before allowing to cool completely on a wire rack
  13. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, make the frosting by beating together the butter and icing sugar until smooth
  14. Add milk enough milk to create a smooth pipe-able consistency. It is always better to add a little bit of milk as you go instead of too much at once

  15. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. For a rose pattern use a large star shaped tip and pipe from the centre and move outwards in a circular motion. 

Recipe Notes

Nutritional information is given as a guide only.

Nutrition Facts
Hidden Heart Valentine’s Cupcakes
Amount Per Serving
Calories 451 Calories from Fat 225
% Daily Value*
Fat 25g38%
Saturated Fat 15g94%
Cholesterol 108mg36%
Sodium 22mg1%
Potassium 44mg1%
Carbohydrates 53g18%
Sugar 40g44%
Protein 4g8%
Vitamin A 795IU16%
Calcium 20mg2%
Iron 0.4mg2%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Comments

  1. Laura@Baking in Pyjamas says

    How pretty, I like the surprise heart a lot. Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!

    Reply

  2. Corina Blum says

    5 stars
    These cupcakes are gorgeous Cat! I’ve never attempted anything like this but the recipe looks nice and simple – even something the kids could help me with in half term as they love baking and they’d both want to cut out the little hearts and help stick them in!

    Reply

  13. Judith Graber says

    Like you I have been wanting to make a cupcake like this (the cakes look harder). Thanks for giving us the details – looks stunning, especially with the way the frosting on top of the cupcakes looks like roses 🙂

    Reply

  14. Life Diet Health says

    Oh wow so pretty! So that’s how they’re made! Thanks for the step by step pictures, how fantastic! I need to go and get some red food colouring now! Thanks for linking and sharing at Fiesta Friday.

    Reply

  23. Sandra says

    5 stars
    Hard to believe that that is how the heart is done. So darn cute. Perfect to give to a loved one anytime. Thanks for sharing the trick.

    Reply

    • Curly says

      Hi Sue, you could try putting less batter underneath the heart and see if that helps? Even if they are at the top, once you have piped the buttercream on they should still look great.

      Reply

    • Christine says

      These do look very easy to make. I do have a question though. If you aren’t biting into or cutting the cupcake at the perfect spot, aren’t you going to be messing up the perfect shape of the heart??

      Reply
5 from 15 votes (1 rating without comment)

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