Easy Cupcakes

It’s easier than you think to pipe icing hearts on top of your cupcakes!
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); icing tinted pink; premade tube of red icing and round tip OR red icing in pastry bag with round tip such as #3.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake pink. To make the left half of the heart, squeeze red icing from tip at 90 degree angle on cupcake so it forms a blob, and then (while easing up on the squeeze power), move downward and stop squeezing before you pull away. Then do the same for the right half of the heart. If your heart has too much of a “seam,” wet a small paintbrush and ease the edges together.

Use your imagination with these simple Valentine cupcakes featuring a heart outline with sprinkles inside. Try varying the icing colors and style of sprinkles for variety.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); frosting tinted pink; red writing icing OR pastry bag with icing tinted red and #3 tip OR cut corner off sandwich bag and use that to pipe icing tinted red; sprinkles.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake pink. Pipe heart shaped outline in red. Carefully fill in center with sprinkles.

These cupcakes are meant to represent a heartbeat (like on an EKG), which could work for Valentine’s Day or for an office party in a hospital or other health care setting. These are truly cupcakes with a lot of heart.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; red writing icing or red icing in pastry bag, or just cut corner off a sandwich bag and use that for piping.
How to Make It: Frost cupcakes with chocolate icing. Pipe (draw) line zigzagging up and down for heartbeat. If you make a whole batch of these, try having a different EKG “reading” on each one.

Here’s a sweet for your sweet on Valentine’s Day. Make a batch of heart shaped cupcakes and decorate them in pastel colors like candy conversation hearts. You can using icing to write traditional messages such as “love” and “hugs,” or customize them with something off-the-wall.
What You Need: marbles or rolled up balls of aluminum foil; cupcake batter; cupcake paper liners; frosting in various pastel colors; red writing icing or red icing in pastry bag with #3 round tip.
How to Make It: Place paper liners in cupcake (muffin) tins. Stick a marble or marble-sized ball of aluminum foil on one side of liner. Fill one-half to two-thirds full with batter (smaller cupcakes will turn out flatter, and look more like conversations hearts). After baking, be sure to let cool. Frost cupcakes in various pastel colors. Pipe words on top of each cupcake.