Romantic Recipe: Valentine's Day Chocolate Heart Cupcakes

Jan 9, 2011
Cecily Layzell

Valentine's Day Chocolate Cupcakes - Image Cecily Layzell

Made with rich cocoa and topped with chocolate cream icing, these heart cupcakes are the perfect treat for romantics and chocoholics on Valentine's Day.

Made with lots of rich cocoa, and topped with chocolate cream icing, these heart cupcakes are the perfect treat for romantics and chocoholics alike on Valentine’s Day. As Lucy Van Pelt said in Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts, “All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.”

Romantic Recipe for Valentine’s Day Chocolate Heart Cupcakes

Makes 12 chocolate heart cupcakes.

Cupcake preparation time: 30 minutes, including icing.

Cupcake cooking time: 20-25 minutes.

Cupcake Ingredients:

8 oz / 225 g plain white flour
2 oz / 50 g cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 oz / 100 light brown sugar
2 eggs
9 fl oz / 250 ml buttermilk
6 tbsp sunflower oil

For the Chocolate Cupcake Icing:

4 oz / 100 g soft butter
8 oz / 200 g icing sugar
2 oz / 50 g plain chocolate (or a mixture of plain and milk)

Chocolate Cupcake Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F / 200 degrees C. Grease a 12-cup, heart-shaped cupcake tin. If using a silicone cupcake tin, there is no need to grease it.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add the brown sugar.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, then add the buttermilk and oil. Mix well. Slowly incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir just until all the ingredients are combined. The cake batter should be soft but not runny.

Spoon the cake batter into the cupcake tin. Each cup should be about three quarters full. Any fuller, and the batter is likely to overflow when it rises, creating a sticky mess in the oven and spoiling the heart-shaped effect of the cupcakes.

Place in the bottom third of the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Remove the cupcakes from the oven, leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

To Make the Icing

Put the butter in a large bowl and gradually add the icing sugar. Beat to a smooth cream.

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl balanced over a small pan of simmering water. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Do not cook the chocolate, otherwise it will become grainy.

Pour the chocolate into the butter/sugar cream and mix well. Spread a generous layer of icing over each cupcake and sprinkle with a few (pink) sugar hearts.