So here we are on the big day {happy Valentine’s to you, by the way} and I finally get to share the mini chocolate cupcakes I’ve been talking about for a few days. They were for the littlest’s kindergarten class since I was asked to bring in the sweet treat.
And here he is, my Valentine for the day. He was reading all 22 of the Valentines he received from his classmates until it was time to sit for juice and their snack.
Holidays are so much more fun with young children. I’m really going to miss all of this when they’re too big for Valentine’s Day celebrations or when, gasp, they have girlfriends that they want to spend this day with.
Well, here are the mini cupcakes cooling on a wire rack. This recipe makes nearly 3 dozen mini cupcakes. They were literally all over the kitchen and on the kitchen table. I used this recipe, which I also included for you at the bottom of the post.
I also used Wilton’s heart candypick mold and red candy melts. You can find the mold here. I saw this a few weeks back at AC Moore and thought this would make a plain cupcake look pretty special.
Here are the finished hearts. I stuck one into the center of one of the mini cupcakes and it toppled right over. That wasn’t exactly my vision. Hmmm, what to do…
I decided to use a paring knife to cut off the “pick” part of the hearts and to place them laying flat on the frosted cupcakes. They certainly weren’t going to win any awards on execution, but my audience was 5 and 6 year-old’s so I thought it get away with it.
It’s been awhile since I filled a pastry bag and piped on some frosting, but it’s sort of like riding a bike. I fitted a large pastry bag with a large open star tip to pipe on the chocolate frosting.
Piping the frosting onto the cupcakes was a snap and they looked kind of cute even before their little heart toppers were put on.
There were a few minutes left before it was time to carefully pack all of those mini cupcakes into the car and head to the school for the celebration. I propped up the tissue paper pom-pom wreath I made the other day and took a quick photo of some of the Valentines the littles had planned to give to friends after school.
You can see that while the oldest wanted to make his “You Rock” Valentines, the littlest preferred to head right on over to Target to pick out his sports-themed Valentines and attach a Tootsie pops to each one.
Speaking of the oldest, he worked hard to get the heart on the vintage chalkboard above, just right.
Hershey’s Chocolate Cake (frosting recipe follows)
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Method
heat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with paper liners.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into lined muffin cups.
Bake 12-16 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes on wire rack. Remove cupcakes to wire racks and continue to cool completely.
Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
Yield: about 2 cups frosting
I hope you had a special day today. My Valentine surprised me with two dozen roses which arrived this afternoon. And now I’m being called by my two little Valentines to play Scrabble. See you later this week!
Simply Tia said:
These cupcakes are amazing!
{Main St. Cuisine} said:
Tia, thank you! That is very sweet of you to say. I hope you had a happy Valentine’s Day {sending belated wishes your way}.
Allison
Simply Tia said:
Thank you Allison. It was a good day. I hope you had a special Valentine’s Day also!
Sarah said:
You’re amazing Allison. These cupcakes are perfect. I love the way you’ve decorated them too, those hearts look so nice! The table looks so good….you’re creativity is something I really admire.
What a fun day for all of you…Thank you for sharing this and how you made a perfect Valentine’s Day memory for your kids.
{Main St. Cuisine} said:
Sarah, you’re so kind. You know, I’m just a wanna-be Martha! But every once in awhile, when I can successfully make one of her 16 ingredient, 20 step recipes or execute one of her amazing, eye-candy crafts, I just have to think if Ms. Stewart can do it, so can I (oh, that was a little cheesy).
Yes, we had a great day and I sure hope you did as well!! 🙂
Allison
jothetartqueen said:
hope you had a sweet valentine’s day! =D I love those heart shaped candy melts on the cupcakes!
{Main St. Cuisine} said:
Thank you so much…I hope you did as well! I had so many left-over mini cupcakes that I’ve been passing them out to neighbors (so I don’t eat them). 🙂
And, thank you for the comment on the candy melts. They were a big hit when the cupcakes got passed out on Tuesday!
Thank you for stopping by!
Allison
dulcetdevotion said:
Wow. These look amazing! Those red hearts are so cute! Happy V day!
{Main St. Cuisine} said:
Thank you so much! I think you get a lot of bang for your buck sort of speak with these candy molds (the red hearts will well-liked by the kindergarten class!). I am catching up on my blog reading tonight, so I’ll be visiting you to see what you’ve been sharing this week.
Allison
meeshiesmom said:
Allison-
These look awesome!
Karen
{Main St. Cuisine} said:
Thanks, Karen! They were the perfect size for those tiny kindergarten hands. I hope you had a happy Valentine’s Day!!
Allison
Heather @ SugarDish(Me) said:
Here is your award for execution: These are so so so cute! The awesome thing about little kids: They think everything you do is AMAZING. I bet that kindergarten class was tickled pink! (teacher, too)
{Main St. Cuisine} said:
Thanks, Heather! Oh my gosh you’ve got that right, the kids thought they were awesome. Only one small problem…lots of left-over cupcakes. First, I dropped off a half a dozen in the front office. Then, I brought some to the bus stop. If you lived near me, I would have brought some over to you too!! 🙂
Heather @ SugarDish(Me) said:
And I gave your blog another award 🙂 You make homemaking look easy, and that’s hard to do!
http://sugardishme.com/2012/02/16/versatile-blog-award/
{Main St. Cuisine} said:
Oh gosh, you are too nice!! How fun and thank you for including me in your list!
Hope you’re having a great day so far…
Allison