Easy Valentine Cupcakes

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Simple, sweet, and easy. These DIY valentine cupcakes have a cute heart-shaped cutout filled with strawberry jam and topped with powered sugar. Perfect for Valentine’s Day or any day you want to spread the love with a sweet treat.

One of my closest friends and I regularly DM each other with cake decorating reels on Instagram. And though I love seeing what professional bakers are doing, generally, it’s way beyond my cake decorating abilities.

Recently though, she sent me a reel that showed valentine cupcakes with a little heart cutout. As soon as I saw it, I immediately thought to myself, “OMG, I can actually do that!”

When I’m baking sweet treats, I’m looking for both delicious and easy–something that doesn’t require a ton of skill. And these cupcakes are it!

Now, I will admit that though these valentine cupcakes are incredibly simple to make, they weren’t just cut and dry. It took me a few rounds of troubleshooting to get it right. But with a few simple tricks, you’ll have these cupcakes made (and devoured) in no time.

Tips for Making Valentine Cupcakes with a Cutout

1. Use any cupcake recipe you prefer. I used Natasha’s Kitchen’s Perfect Vanilla Cupcake Recipe. But you can use your favorite scratch-made cupcake recipe or store-bought cupcake mix.
2. Let the cupcakes completely cool. Before slicing the tops of the cupcakes, make sure they are all the way to room temperature. Not only will that allow the fats to solidify, it will also make spreading the jam easier (if it’s too hot, the jam will soak into the cupcake).
3. Fill your cupcake liners almost to the top. Generally, you fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. But for these cupcakes specifically, you will need the cake to dome above the liner. That way, you can easily slice the tops off.
4. Don’t worry about perfection. These cupcakes are simple and forgiving. If your cupcakes dome too much and overflow (like mine did), don’t worry about it! If the tops of your cupcakes crack, no worries. There are more tips below for troubleshooting these issues.
5. Use room temperature jam. Cold jam will still work, but it isn’t as easy to spread. I found that stirring up a bowl of room temperature jam was easy to use for spreading on the cupcake and filling the heart cutout.
6. Mix up the flavors. This recipe will work for any flavor cupcake and jam that your heart desires. Keep in mind that there needs to be contrast between the cake and jam. Otherwise, the heart won’t stand out. But you could certainly experiment with flavors like almond, coconut, or lemon for your cake batter. And jam flavors such as raspberry, blueberry, apricot, or fig.
7. Make extra batter! Because you need to fill the liner nearly to the top, this recipe will yield fewer cupcakes in total. For me, a 12-serving recipe made 6 heart cutout valentine cupcakes.

Heart Cupcakes – Tricks for Cutting the Heart

Making these strawberry jam heart cupcakes is very easy. But this was the point where I had to do a little troubleshooting because it isn’t as simple as Instagram made it seem. Here are my tried and true tips for cutting out the heart shape:

• Make sure your cookie cutter is the right size. My husband 3D printed my heart cookie cutters. And though they worked, they weren’t quite tall enough to easily cut through the cake. Double check that your cutter is tall enough to cut through the top of the cupcake that you slice off.
• Cut from the backside. I found that if I tried to cut from the front/top of the cupcake, it cracked the cake. However, by flipping it over and cutting from the bottom/back of the cupcake, there was less cracking.

• Fix cracks and imperfections with powdered sugar. I don’t know if it was the cake recipe I used or if some of my cupcakes were too domed. But many of them did crack when I cut them. Fixing them was a cinch though. I just put them back together and dusted them with powdered sugar until the crack was covered. In fact, the valentine cupcakes in these blog photos had cracks that you can’t even see.
• Add powdered sugar after you cut the heart. Similar to the above tip, waiting until after you cut out the heart to dust with powdered sugar will cover up any imperfections from cutting. The edges of the heart, for me, looked a little rough. But once they were coated in powdered sugar, they looked great.

• Let the jam sit for a minute, then fill again. After placing a dollop of jam in the heart cutout, give it a minute. For me, the jam settled slightly, leaving more room for an extra scoop of jam.

How to Serve Cupcakes for Valentine’s Day

How do you serve cupcakes for Valentine’s Day? With love, of course!

If you are throwing a Galentine’s Day party, brunch, or other special event, these are adorable when paired with a stenciled latte or homemade hot chocolate. Latte art stencils are an easy way to elevate a cupcake and coffee combo.

These also make a really sweet Valentine’s Day gift. Box one or two up in a cupcake box (affiliate link), and add a handwritten valentine. Really, nothing says “I love you” more than a homemade gift–especially one you can eat.

Tools You Will Need

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• Heart-shaped cookie cutter
• Sieve or powder shaker
• Muffin tin
• Cupcake liners
• Serrated knife
• Small knife for spreading jam

Ingredients For Strawberry Heart Cupcakes

• Your favorite cupcakes (use your favorite recipe or mix)
• 1 cup strawberry jam, room temperature
• Powdered sugar

How to Make Heart Cutout Cupcakes for Valentine’s Day

1. Make your favorite cupcakes. I used this Perfect Vanilla Cupcake recipe. Be sure to fill the cupcake liners close to the top. The baked cake should dome over the liner, but not overflow.
2. Allow the cupcakes to completely cool to room temperature.
3. Once cooled, use a serrated knife to slice the tops off of the cupcake. Use the top of the cupcake liner as a guide.
4. Turn the sliced-off portion over so that the bottom is facing up. Use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the heart.
5. Turn the sliced-off top over again (it should be right-side up now). Dust powered sugar over the top. A sieve or powder shaker is help for this. Dust as heavily as needed for preference and to cover up any imperfections from baking and cutting. Set aside.
6. Smooth a thin layer of jam on the bottom part of the cupcake (the portion that is in the liner).
7. Evenly place the top back onto the bottom portion.
8. Use a small spoon to fill the heart with more jam. If after a few minutes the jam has settled into the heart, add another dollop to fill it again.

Other Sweet Treats To Try

• Double Chocolate Sourdough Babka
• Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Rolls
• Homemade Salted Caramel Latte