It’s almost the day of love, and these cupcake Valentines are the perfect way to bring the whole family into the celebration!
This is a tutorial that I created for kids years ago, when I first started my blog. I wasn’t married yet, and the ladies in the pictures are my little sisters, back when they were much younger.
It feels kind of strange to go posting this now, but I wanted to update it because this is a special memory for me, and I think it’s still a pretty good idea for having kids participate in Valentine’s Day. Having children of my own now, I’m excited to do crafts like this with them when they get a little older.
Ways to use these cupcake Valentines
These cupcakes are a great way for your kids to have fun together, make gifts for their friends, or make gifts for each other! I’m all about having kids bond over creative pursuits. While this is simple, it’s a really fun way to make some special memories together.
Do I need a special recipe for these cupcakes?
Nope! You can make the cupcakes from scratch with your favourite recipe, or go ahead and pick up a boxed mix to whip these up in no time! I will add a frosting recipe below, but even that can be made with pretty much any thick, smooth buttercream.
Making the Valentine cupcake frosting
I’ll attach the recipe below, and you can go ahead and tint it to the colour of your choice (pink for this tutorial).
Simple Vanilla Buttercream
A simple, thick, delicious buttercream recipe for decorating cakes and cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened (If using unsalted butter, add 1/2 tsp. salt to this recipe)
- 4 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
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Beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until smooth and creamy.
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Add the icing sugar and milk alternately until well combined. Mix in the vanilla and continue beating until thick and creamy.
Recipe Notes
- If the icing is too thick, add a little milk until it's a good spreading consistency.
- I recommend gel food colouring for tinting this recipe; liquid food colour will thin the consistency of the frosting, especially if you are going for bold colours.
- For a pure white frosting, you can substitute vegetable shortening for the butter and clear vanilla extract for the vanilla.
How are the cupcake toppers made?
Since this is the purpose of this whole post, I’ll get right into it! Here is how you make these cupcake Valentines!
Cupcake Valentine Tutorial
You will need:
- White computer paper
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Toothpicks
- Crayons
- Crafter’s glue
- Baked cupcakes
- Prepared frosting
- Sprinkles (optional)
- 12-18″ piping bag
- Large star tip (I like #2D, or something a little wider)
How to make the Valentine cupcake toppers:
- Take one of your sheets of paper and fold it over lengthways, about 1/4 of the way. Using the pencil, draw two 1/2 hearts (or as I thought when I was little, “Ice cream cones”) on this, with the crease in the paper down the centre of the hearts. Try to make them about the same size. You can make one, and then trace it for additional hearts if you want to make them exactly the same size (you will need two of the same-sized heart cutouts per cupcake).
- Have your kids colour in the half-heart shapes (or “ice cream cones”), however they like them.
- Cut out the cone shapes to release the half-coloured hearts. Set the hearts onto pieces of paper (to protect the table from crayon), and have the kids colour in the other half of the heart, again, however they like.
- Repeat with the second same-sized heart shape. The hearts can be the same, or different, but we opted to make them basically the same since they go onto the same toothpick.
- Spread a little bit of glue onto the back of the first heart you coloured, set a toothpick into the centre of it, and then glue the second heart on top, coloured side up.
- Repeat with as many hearts as you need to make 1-3 toppers per cupcake.
How to Assemble the Cupcake Valentines:
- Prepare your cupcakes and frosting as per your recipe instructions. Set aside.
- Using some scissors, snip off the end of your piping bag so that the star tip can sit comfortably inside, with the end sticking out. Make an inside out cuff on the end of your bag, and spoon about 1 cup of frosting inside. Unfold the cuff, and twist the end to make a tight bag.
- Holding the bag at the twist and squeezing the frosting, make a large swirl on top of each cupcake. Scatter with sprinkles immediately, and then repeat frosting the cupcakes, keeping the end of the bag twisted so that frosting does not spill out the back. Refill the bag with frosting as needed, always making that cuff again to minimize mess.
- Top the cupcakes with your Valentine hearts.
…And voila, a cupcake Valentine! You can always write little messages on the hearts too, if you want to make them a little more personalized.
I want to hear from you:
What did you enjoy on Valentine’s Day as a child growing up? I remember my mom always wanting to get us some little sweet treat, and we always enjoyed getting little cards from my grandparents and making our own in return.
I’d love to hear what makes you smile when you think back on Valentine’s Days past! Let me know in the comments.
Back soon, and… Happy Valentine’s Day!
–Naomi
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