Heart Stencil Cupcakes

These tasty and adorable Heart Stencil Cupcakes feature a red frosting middle and a confectionery sugar shaped heart top.

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Oh how I love Valentine’s Day!

Maybe it is the colorful pinks, reds, and purples? The pretty, and feminine hearts, or the fact that lovers have a their own day  to celebrate?

Regardless, it has always been a special day to me, and I do not even get showered with gifts–trust me! haha! I guess when it boils down to it, I just love the shape of a heart, and have so much fun decorating, and baking sweet treats like my heart stencil cupcakes with a peak of bright red frosting.

I have always been such a fan of the simplicity and elegance powdered sugar can give baked treats like cupcakes, and even brownies. There is something just so tantalizing about a sprinkle of powdered sugar in lieu of traditional frosting. After buying a set of baking stencils, I knew I wanted to use the heart stencil for a Valentine recipe.

Bright red frosting, some shiny, and shimmery pearls and a cute powdered sugar heart cupcake was what I envisioned. It was my first time splitting the top off cupcakes so besides that learning curve, I think they turned out amazing! For the red frosting color,  I used Wilton Christmas Red Icing Color at a 1 teaspoon to 1 cup of butter cream ratio.

The rest is easy peasy, and much more hassle free than I thought. They key to getting a nice sliced cupcake top is to actually fill the cupcake pan at least 3/4 of the way so that they tops are larger verses traditional half filled cups. It gives extra cake to work with verses pulling off the paper.

Ingredients & supplies:

• Butter-2 sticks, unsalted at room temp
• vanilla extract- 1 tsp
• powdered sugar-3 cups plus more for stenciling
• Wilton Christmas Red Food Gel-1 teaspoon per cup of buttercream made
• White boxed cake mix-1 plus all ingredients needed to make your cupcakes
• SweetWorks Shimmer Pearls in white- pack
• Heart Stencil-1

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven according to the cake mix instructions
• Prepare a cupcake pan with liners-I used red and white dots
• Bake cupcakes
• Allow to fully cool before frosting, and slicing off the very tops.
• To slice the top, used a sharp knife, and make sure to slice off enough for the heart stencil

Frosting:  

Cream your butter for one minute on medium speed. Adjust speed to low, and add your powdered sugar to your stand mixer and cream for an additional 1 minute on low speed. Add one teaspoon per cup of buttercream. Adjust color to your desired brightness.

Pipe on frosting using a large star tip. Stencil powdered sugar heart on cupcake “cap”. Once heart is completed, add the cap back to the cupcake; add pearls.

I hope you all enjoy this Valentine’s Day Heart Stencil Cupcake recipe with your family!

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Heart Stencil Cupcakes

An easy to make, festive Valentine’s heart stencil cupcake DIY.

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12 cupcakes

Author Amy Desrosiers

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups powdered sugar plus a little more for stenciling
• 1 teaspoon Red Food Gel 1 tsp per cup
• 1 box White cake mix plus all ingredients needed according to the cake mix
• 1 package SweetWorks Shimmer Pearls in white

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven according to the cake mix instructions
• Prepare a cupcake pan with liners-I used red and white dots
• Bake cupcakes
• Allow to fully cool before frosting, and slicing off the very tops.
• To slice the top, used a sharp knife, and make sure to slice off enough for the heart stencil

Frosting:  

• Cream your butter for one minute on medium speed. Adjust speed to low, and add your powdered sugar to your stand mixer and cream for an additional 1 minute on low speed. Add one teaspoon per cup of buttercream. Adjust color to your desired brightness.
• Pipe on frosting using a large star tip. Stencil powdered sugar heart on cupcake “cap”. Once heart is completed, add the cap back to the cupcake; add pearls.