Valentine's day ideas

Here are some divine inspiration to kick off this month from Bakerella, flickr, Cupcakes take the cake & The Scootabaker! Enjoy!
I came across TheScootabaker who had some awesome ideas for V-day cupcakes, i think i'll be having a go at making a selection of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with strawberry buttercream heart fillings, then perhaps attempt making some filligree style choc hearts to put on top of the buttercream with heart shaped sprinkles. Yum






I found a great recipe for the chocolate cupcake from Joy of Baking which i'll be using again as it's dead easy. The cupcakes turned out moist and also quite light and spongy... but maybe not enough chocolate for my man's liking so may have to add more chocolate.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water

1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. You can either spread the frosting on the cupcakes with a small spatula or if piping, use a large Wilton 1M open star tip to make lovely swirls.