Easy Chocolate Valentine’s Cupcakes with Free Printable Cupcake Toppers

February 6, 2013

A simple and moist chocolate cupcake recipe with a fail proof cream cheese frosting colored pink for Valentine’s Day.

If you’re scrounging around for a last minute way to show your spouse, family, friends, and/or coworkers that you love them this Valentine’s Day, these Chocolate Cupcakes with Pink Cream Cheese Frosting are for you.

The chocolate cupcakes and cream cheese frosting are so simple to whip up.

Take a few minutes and go the extra mile with these simple, yet adorable, handmade paper cupcake toppers and you’ll surely impress with your loved ones with these made-from-scratch cupcakes and frosting.

Written by: Caroline Edwards of Chocolate & Carrots

How to Make Paper Cupcake Toppers

To make the cupcake toppers you’ll need the following:

  • White card stock paper – I used 110lb card stock and was very sturdy
  • Colored printer
  • This free printableย document.
  • Some sort of circle cutter – I used Martha Stewart’s Simple Circle Cutter
  • Small wooden skewers or toothpicks – I used 3 inch skewers
  • Tape

Cupcake Topper Assembly (Click photos to enlarge):

1. Open the cupcake topperย document.

2. Right click and save image as…

3. Open the free printable cupcake topper image from your downloads folder in a program such as preview (mac).
4. Select the drop down for File and click on the Print option…

5. Change the ‘Scale to fit’ option to however many cupcake toppers you would like per page.

You can also make them larger by decreasing or increasing the scale.

Also, check the print to page option.

6. Print the printable document on the card stock.
7. Cut out each individual cupcake topper using your circle cutter.
8. Tape the cut out cupcake topper onto the top of your skewers.
9. Stick the adorable Valentine cupcake topper into your decorated cupcakes.

Note:

These directions will vary slightly depending on your computer platform and printer.

I use a macintosh computer.

Making and decorating homemade cupcakes is as simple as that.

With just a little bit of effort, you can make a really big impact in how much you care about those you love.

I hope you’ll consider making your loved ones theseย homemade cupcakes for Valentine’s Day.ย 

They not only taste amazing, but it’s a fun way to really show you care.

Personally, I think that homemade Valentine’s are the best kind.

Because these Chocolate Cupcakes are so simple you’ll likely have all of the ingredients in your kitchen already, making this the perfect treat to bake up last minute.

If you don’t have the time or supplies to prepare the cupcake toppers, no worries.

Just add some pretty sprinkles on top to dress them up a bit.

Need help learning how to frost cupcakes?

Check out Katie’s Cupcake Piping Tipsย and her instructions for Multi-Swirled Frosting (if you’d like to swirl pink and white cream cheese frosting together – how cute would that be?).

Baking at high altitude?

Katie has High Altitude Baking Tips for Cupcakes.

What are you looking forward to for Valentine’s Day?

Chocolate Cupcakes with Pink Cream Cheese Frosting

Yield: 14-15 cupcakes
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
A simple and moist chocolate cupcake recipe with a fail proof cream cheese frosting colored pink for Valentine's Day.

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

  • 1/2 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
  • 1 cup boiling hot water
  • 1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Frosting

  • 8 ounces 1/3 fat cream cheese, room temperature (frosting)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (frosting)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • pink food coloring

Instructions

For the Cupcakes

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Line a muffin tin with paper cups and spray with canola oil. Set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and boiling water. Set aside.
  4. In another small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  5. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  6. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until combined.
  7. Beat in the flour mixture until just combined, scraping down the sides, if needed.
  8. On low, beat in the cocoa water until just combined.
  9. Fill the paper cups about 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
  10. Allow the cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the tin and placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the Frosting

  1. Meanwhile, to make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.
  2. Beat in the vanilla extract.
  3. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until combined.
  4. At this point, you can add pink food coloring to get it the shade you'd like. Just make sure to add a little bit at a time. You can't take the pink out, but you can add more if you need to.

Decorating the Cupcakes

  1. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, scoop the frosting into a large pastry bag or ziplock bag fitted with a large pastry tip.
  2. Gently press some on the top of your cupcakes until you have a nice base of frosting, then while continuing to squeeze, lift straight up to make another little mound of frosting on the top.
  3. Stop squeezing and quickly lift off of the cupcake.
  4. Garnish with sprinkles.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 15 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 373 Total Fat: 16g Saturated Fat: 9g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 5g Cholesterol: 59mg Sodium: 117mg Carbohydrates: 56g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 46g Protein: 3g
© Caroline Edwards
Cuisine: American / Category: Cakes and Cupcakes
A simple and moist chocolate cupcake recipe with a fail proof cream cheese frosting colored pink for Valentine's Day.

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by Caroline Edwards

Caroline Edwards is a food blogger and photographer, recipe developer, a new mom, and wife. She runs chocolate & carrots where she primarily focuses on healthier baking. She also runs crackers & carrots where she documents everything pregnancy and baby. She is OCD about having the kitchen sink clean, is a major chocoholic and loves modern and simple styles.