Week 6: Valentine's Day Surprise Cupcake!

Well of course since Valentine’s Day was this week, I had to go with a Valentine’s Day themed cupcake.

I got the idea and recipe from: http://bakeitinacake.com/recipes/heartinacupcake .  I however doubled the recipe as the blog was incorrect and ended up with 24 cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes!

For the cupcakes you’ll need:
3 sticks unsalted butter
3 c. granulated sugar
6 eggs
4 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
4 t. vanilla
5 c. flour
2 2/3 c. whole milk
a small heart shaped cookie cutter

For the frosting you’ll need:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
16 oz cream cheese, room temperature
2 c. powdered sugar

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees (F).  Use a non-toxic marker or a pencil to draw a little dot on the outside of 12 cupcake liners, then place them in your cupcake pan. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and salt. Mix for about a minute, until creamy (be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice, to ensure everything is getting worked in). Then add the milk and flour, alternating between the two ingredients (to avoid lumps) until the batter is smooth and everything is well combined.

Pour a little more than 1/3 of the batter into two non-stick (or lightly greased) 8x8 baking pan (about 2 cups each pan) and bake until the edges of the cake start to turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (different recipes will require different baking times—be sure to keep an eye on your cake).  Allow to cool completely (to speed up the process, I stuck it in the fridge).

With the rest of the batter, dye it the shade of red or pink you like.  Then cover and keep in a cool area, away from oven but not in fridge until needed.

Once one of the sheets of cake is cooled, loosen the edges away from the pan with a knife and then invert the pan onto a cutting board. Use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out 24 cake hearts that are small enough to fit into an average-sized cupcake pan.

Spoon two heaping tablespoons of the remaining batter into paper-lined cupcake tins, so they’re about half-full.

 

Put one heart into each tin and press it point down into the batter. (Keep all the hearts facing towards the dot you drew on the cupcake paper, so you remember which way the heart is facing after the cupcakes are baked.)

Cover with another heaping teaspoon of batter so the heart is completely covered and bake until the cupcakes have turned golden brown and the cake bounces back when you gently press your finger into the top of the cupcake. *I forgot to cover, so a few turned out correctly but majority the hearts where too high! Allow to cool before decorating!  What they should look like out of the oven:

 However, this is what the majority of mine turn out:

With the other sheet of cake, cut out another 24 hearts, like you did previously and set aside.

Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixing bowl on medium speed until smooth. Add one cup of the powdered sugar, and mix until fluffy. Then add the other cup of powdered sugar, a half cup at a time, mixing until fluffy.

Here’s the tricky part—you’ll have to keep the cupcakes facing forward so you get the right cross-section of the heart when you cut or bite into the cupcake (to get the full heart effect). That’s where the little dot on the cupcake paper comes in handy. After frosting, I then took one of the cake hearts and cut it half as they were thick and placed the good half on top of the iced cupcake in the center.  I faced it forward so I know which way to cut the cupcake in order to see the heart shape inside.

 

*I made a little description of the cupcake and how to cut it. However, I said to cut it with the heart facing you, but never said to cut it horizontal or vertical. A few people cut it the wrong way, but if you squeeze it together and cut it the other way, it still works!

Love always, aloterlla :)