A simple and moist chocolate cupcake recipe with a fail-proof cream cheese frosting colored pink for Valentine’s Day. These Valentine’s Cupcakes are a hit at parties!

Click HERE to save this recipe for Valentine’s Cupcakes!

Written by: Caroline Edwards of Chocolate & Carrots

Easy Valentine’s Day Dessert Idea

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 Valentine’s Cupcakes with Pink Cream Cheese Frosting are for you.

The dark 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.

Because these dark 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.

Valentine’s Cupcakes Ingredients

To make this easy Valentine’s Day dessert recipe, you’ll need:

• Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder
• Boiling water
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Unsalted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract

And for the homemade cupcake frosting, you’ll need:

• Cream cheese
• Unsalted butter
• Vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar
• Pink food coloring

For the complete ingredient list and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this post for the FREE printable recipe card.

Click HERE to save this recipe for Valentine’s Cupcakes!

How to Make Valentine’s Cupcakes

There are so many wonderful Valentine cupcake ideas on the internet, but I love making these cupcakes because they’re so simple! Here’s how I make these dark chocolate Valentine’s Day cupcakes:

1. Whisk together the chocolate cupcake batter.
2. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full, then bake until set.
3. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
4. Garnish the cupcakes with sprinkles and/or cupcake toppers (keep scrolling for instructions on printing the toppers).

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 printable 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 topper 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 these homemade Valentine’s Day cupcakes. 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.

Click HERE to save this recipe for Valentine’s Cupcakes!

Can I Use Another Type of Cupcake Frosting?

Of course! These Valentine’s cupcakes use a homemade cream cheese frosting, but you could also top the chocolate cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream, Chocolate Buttercream, Cherry Vanilla Buttercream, or your favorite frosting.

Can I Prep Valentine’s Cupcakes in Advance?

If desired, you can bake and freeze the unfrosted chocolate cupcakes ahead of time. When you’re ready to serve the Valentine’s Day cupcakes, set the cupcakes on your counter to thaw, then make a fresh batch of buttercream and frost them.

Tips for Making Valentine’s Cupcakes

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 these Cupcake Piping Tips and these 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.

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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.

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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.

• 
  Hand Mixer
• 
  Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa
• 
  Mixing Bowls
• 
  Spatula Set
• 
  Medium Cookie Scoop
• 
  Muffin Pan
• 
  Valentine's Day Baking Cups
• 
  Gel Food Coloring
• 
  Disposable Pastry Bags
• 
  Kootek 42 Pieces Cupcake Decorating Kits
• 
  Mini Valentines Hearts Sprinkles
• 
  Valentine's Nonpareils

Nutrition Information

Yield 15 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 373Total Fat 16gSaturated Fat 9gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 59mgSodium 117mgCarbohydrates 56gFiber 1gSugar 46gProtein 3g

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Tag @goodlifeeats and include the hashtag #goodlifeeatsrecipes so I can see what you’re cooking up in YOUR kitchen!

Click HERE to save this recipe for Valentine’s Cupcakes!