Valentine’s Day Flower Cupcakes

White almond cupcakes topped with buttercream frosting, these Valentine’s Day Cupcakes are easy and delicious, not to mention they are made with love and baked from the heart. 

Good morning friends, Valentine’s Day is 5 days away, which means that unless you want to pay express shipping rates for a bottle of perfume or a piece of jewelry, you are going to need to rethink your gift idea(unless you have Amazon Prime). That is where I can help, you can find 10 Outside the Box Valentine’s Day Gifts is this past Saturday’s post, one of which is a homemade treat made with love.

A few weeks ago I was perusing Williams Sonoma and I saw Valentines’ Day bouquet cupcakes which are so cute and expensive! Don’t get me wrong, I love Williams Sonoma but $99.00 for 8 cupcakes plus shipping seems a little high to me, and I might add they come frozen! I pinned them a few times and even shared them in my Valentine’s Day finds and then I thought to myself, why not try to make a batch myself to give to my neighbors and friends.

I love baking, but cake and cupcake decorating is not my strong suit. Lucky for me a year ago I purchased some Russian pipping tips, which make cake decorating a whole lot easier because each tip(with practice) makes a flower.

Today I am going to share my version of the bouquet cupcakes from Williams Sonoma, using my “go to” white almond “wedding cake/cupcake recipe that starts with a box mix! Yes, you read that correctly, these cupcakes are semi-homemade and they are absolutely scrumptious. Top them with the “best ever” buttercream frosting and I am telling you, you will win the hearts of everyone who takes a bite of these beautiful cupcakes.

How to Make Valentine’s Day Flower Cupcakes Using Russian Piping Tips

There are lots of ways to show your love on Valentine’s Day but there is nothing that says I love you more than something made with love, especially a bouquet of homemade flower cupcakes, with the best buttercream frosting ever.

To make these scrumptious cupcakes you need:

1. One White Almond Cake
2. One Batch “Best Ever” Buttercream Frosting
3. Food Coloring
4. Russian Piping Tips

White Almond Cake Recipe

Recipe from Allrecipes

Ingredients

1 package white cake mix

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 cup of white sugar

3/4 tsp salt

11/3 cup water

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 egg whites

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Add liners to your baking tin and set aside.

Stir together cake mix, sugar, salt, and flour. Pour in sour cream, water, oil, extracts, and egg whites. In an electric mixer on low, mix all ingredients together until ingredients are moistened and mix, about 4 minutes. There will still be a few lumps.

Pour into prepared pans. Bake about 18-25 minutes. All ovens are different so be sure to watch your cupcakes. The cupcakes are done when a toothpick comes out clean and cake is golden. Remove from oven, let cool and then decorate.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

INGREDIENTS

2 cups softened butter

4-5 cups of sifted powdered sugar

1-3 tablespoons of milk, I used almond milk

2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

food coloring, pink, green

DIRECTIONS

In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter for 3-4 minutes, you want the butter to be light and creamy, so be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically.

Add the sifted powder sugar and mix on low until incorporated, then turn the mixer on medium-high and beat until fluffy, for about 1 minute.

Next, add the vanilla and the milk, and beat again. Check the frosting for taste, you might need to add a little more powdered sugar if you want it to be sweeter. The same with the milk, you can add a little more to get it to a more  spreadable consistency. Be careful not to add to much milk.

I like to divid the frosting into bowls and then mix in the food coloring by hand. If you are using gel coloring make sure to use a very small amount to start otherwise you will end up with some crazy almost neon colors(speaking from experience).

Once you have your frosting made, add whichever tip you want to use to the piping bag and pipe flowers onto the top of the cupcake.

Tips

• If you do not have Russian Piping Tips  or you are more comfortable making your own flowers than do that. Or simply use a knife and frost cupcakes, add sprinkles if you want or a chocolate heart. Whatever you do I am sure that the recipients will love them.
• As noted above, be very careful with the gel coloring, a little goes a L-O-N-G Way
• If you do not want to make almond cupcakes, add vanilla extract instead
• If you do not like white cupcakes, make chocolate
• Short on time, use a box mix
• If you have your own favorite recipe for cake or buttercream use that instead.

That is it, moist, delicious, sweet, semi-homemade, white almond cupcakes with “best ever buttercream frosting. I hope you makes these easy Valentine’s Day cupcakes to give to your family and friends. Make them with your kid or grandkids and then give them a batch to take home to their parents.

Are you making homemade treats to give to your family and friends? What are you making? Do you have a special cookie, cake or candy recipe that you might share with us? If so please leave the link to the recipe in the comments.

One last thing, I made chocolate cupcakes last year, again the recipe started with a box and I used a star tip and then added sprinkles, it is not easier than the flowers, just a different look.  You could make a heart shaped cake using a square pan and a round pan.

Have a great day friends! Thank you for stopping by.

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