These Sprinkle Heart Cupcakes are super easy and the perfect treat for Valentine’s Day! The best part is that they require no fancy tools to make.
I think one of the best parts of Valentine’s Day is spreading the love with fun little crafts and treats! These cupcakes are the perfect activity for all ages and are sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face.
What you will need
These cupcakes are totally customizable and you don’t need any fancy spatulas or piping tips to make them! Here’s what you’ll need:
Cupcakes – Any flavour you like! Red Velvet or my Easy Chocolate Cupcakes would be perfect for Valentine’s Day. A boxed cake mix would also work well.
Buttercream – A buttercream frosting will be best for these as you want a good base for your sprinkle hearts. My Perfect Vanilla Buttercream and Perfect Chocolate Buttercream are great options!
Parchment Paper – Just a small square of it to cut the heart stencil out of.
Sprinkles – Any type of sprinkles will work! My favourite kind, and the ones I used here, are Sweetapolita.
A Knife – A regular kitchen knife or even a butter knife will work. We will use this in place of a spatula to spread the frosting.
A Spoon – A small spoon is best. We will use it to scoop the sprinkles onto the cupcake.
A baking sheet – Not necessary, but this will help you catch sprinkles when pouring them onto the cupcakes!
How to make Sprinkle Heart Cupcakes
First things first, prepare your cupcakes and frosting according to the recipe you are following. Make sure to let the cupcakes cool fully.
Next, cut a small square of parchment paper so that it is just a little bit bigger than the top of your cupcake. Then, cut a small heart out of your parchment square to make a “heart stencil”. Fold your square in half and cut a tear drop shape. When you open it up, you’ve got a heart! Make sure the heart is not too big for your cupcake. It should fit right in the centre with some room around the edges of the cupcake still. If you want to be able to decorate more than one cupcake at a time, you can cut out more parchment hearts!
Now let’s frost our cupcakes! Using your knife, dollop a good amount of frosting onto the top of the cupcake. Using a back and forth motion, spread the frosting across the cupcake so that it makes a flat base. To smooth the sides, use the non-serrated edge of the knife to go around. Check out the video down below for a good demonstration of this!
Once all of your cupcakes are frosted, let them chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes. We want the frosting to be a little firm so that the parchment paper doesn’t get stuck in it.
Only take a few cupcakes out of the fridge at a time while working on applying the sprinkles.
If you are using a baking sheet, place your cupcake in the centre of it. I recommend using a baking sheet to catch all of the sprinkles that are going to fall over the edge of the cupcake!
Place the parchment heart stencil in the centre of the frosted cupcake and lightly press the edges down so that it is laying flat.
Using your spoon, pour some sprinkles over top of the heart and lightly press them into the frosting using the back of the spoon. Once you have completely filled in the heart with sprinkles and made sure they are stuck into the frosting, carefully pull the parchment square off the cupcake.
If there are any stray sprinkles you can just use your finger to move them to where you want them to go!
Repeat this process for the rest of the cupcakes!
If you try these Sprinkle Heart Cupcakes out, be sure to tag me on Instagram @cremedelacombe! I would love to see your creations!
If you are looking for other Valentine’s ideas or recipes, here are a few to check out: