Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Who on earth would buy heart-shaped muffin pans that can only really be used once a year?  Who would do such a thing?

*blush*  To be fair, i could use these for other occasions, like maybe a birthday or anniversary.  How could I resist these cute little silicone pans?

Okay, so people have been noting that I have not been baking lately.  That is 100% true.  It's this terrible thing called grad school getting in the way of my baking dreams.  Anyways, I finally got some time off today, and to celebrate the upcoming holiday, I made Valentine's Day cupcakes: Vanilla Cupcakes with Pink Vanilla Frosting and Candy Pearls.  Course, my actual valentine lives so far away that these will mostly go to my local friends. 


Ingredients (18 cupcakes):
-2 sticks sweet butter
-1 cup sugar
-2 cups self-rising flour
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-4 eggs
-1 tsp baking powder

1.  Preheat oven to 350F. 

2.  Mix all the ingredients together. 

Look how thick and creamy this batter is!  I love it.  I might have eaten a spoonful of it.  Raw.

3.  Next, I spooned the batter into the cute little hearts.  Oh gosh, i cannot be more girly...

4. Bake for 20 minutes.  Then i pulled them out of the oven and the hearts had grown into these bulbs.  Hehe.  I allowed them to cool for a good 20 minutes.

5.  If you ever try to pull cakes or cupcakes out of silicone pans, you might have experienced some disaster.  The best way to remove them is to turn them over and pop each of them out by giving a little push from the opposite end.  Tada!

As if they couldn't be cuter, they have little heart-shaped bottoms.  Stop it!  So cute.

6.  For these, I just used store-bought vanilla frosting.  I decided to give them a pink shade though.

Then I used my trusty piping bag...

And piped pink frosting on top of the cupcakes in the shape of a heart.  STOP THE CUTENESS.

Oh no, look how cute they are?  Pink heart cupcakes!  Nonononono i can't stand it.

A few normal round ones with the extra batter i had.

Hark!  What are these?

I had bought candy pearls and silver sugar crystals a few weeks ago, just cause they were cute.  Oh no. 

Oh, SP, what are you doing now?

AHHHH little pearls on the pink heart cupcakes. 

Hehe i am in love with them.  I really am. 

And how about the ones with silver crystals?

Oh so darling!

These were easy to make! Consider making some of these cute little cupcakes for your valentine or your besties this weekend!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.