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Love and romance, kisses and hugs. It will be Valentines Day soon and one of the best times of the year for chocolate and sweets of all types and the perfect excuse to eat them as well as make them for your sweetheart or as party favors. This time we will discuss Valentines cupcakes and frosting. Again we've invited professional cake and cupcake decorator from British Columbia, Canada Leigh Wyryha back to ask her for some Valentine cupcake advice. We started off by asking for her opinion on her favorite Valentine cupcakes. She enthusiastically admitted that her favorite were red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and how addicting they can be. She is also fond of chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter cream frosting on top. And sure enough, just our luck she was willing to share her recipe with us. Valentines Red Velvet Cupcakes Ingredients 2 ½ cups of flower ½ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder 1 teaspoon of baking soda ½ teaspoon of salt 1 cup of softened butter 2 cups of sugar 4 eggs 1 cup of sour cream ½ cup of milk 2 teaspoons of vanilla and red food coloring Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food coloring, and vanilla. I would only add a few drops of red food coloring, just enough to get a nice red color in the batter. Then gradually mix in the flour until just blended, don't over mix. Spoon batter into muffin paper-lined muffin cups about ¾ full. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. And to top it off she even offered the frosting recipe too. Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe: Ingredients 1- 8 ounce package of cream cheese ¼ cup softened butter 2 teaspoons vanilla 16 oz of confectioners' sugar (icing sugar) Directions : Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar. Spread over top of cooled cupcakes and serve. I like to garnish mine with shaved chocolate. I love a good cream cheese frosting, it tastes rich and creamy, but we wanted something extra special, something we hadn't seen before. So we asked her if there was a Valentines frosting recipe that would tip the scales, something that would take this year's cupcakes to the next level. And that's when she released this little secret. A frosting recipe that will knock your socks off. Strawberry Marshmallow Frosting 2 cups of white sugar 2/3 cup of water 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup 4 eggs whites 1 package of strawberry flavored gelatin red food coloring, if desired Have 4 egg whites sitting in a small glass bowl within reach and ready to use. In a small saucepan stir together sugar, water and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and cook to 240 degrees F, or use the water test by dropping a small amount of mixture into a cold cup of water and it should turn into tiny strands. Remove the saucepan from heat and stir in your strawberry gelatin. Set aside. Whip egg whites in the small glass bowl until soft peaks form. Slowly pour the sugar mixture into the egg whites while continuing to whip until stiff glossy peaks. Cover cupcakes as desired. Awesome, a great cupcake recipe and very tasty Valentines frosting recipes. Now we were just dying to know another little secret. How does a professional cupcake decorator package her cupcakes as a romantic gift. She revealed for an elegant, romantic touch to place one or two cupcakes in a white box, tie them off with red ribbon and stick a simple gift tag on the outside with a description revealing what was inside. I like your style Leigh. It sounds simple, but romantic. I'm sure many boyfriends and husbands are reading carefully and taking notes. Ok I admit we were feeling pretty lucky so we rolled the dice to see if we could be fortunate just one more time. So we asked Leigh if there were any other new and fun Valentines cupcakes ideas that would make this year's holiday extra special and low and behold she did have a slick idea: cupcakes in a jar! They're perfect for Valentine's Day and for birthdays, bridal showers, baby showers too.. It's a simple technique of placing already baked cupcakes in a jar with layers of frosting in between . All you have to do is pop the lid off, grab a spoon and start eating! That is such a cool idea! Wow! Very clever. Now there was one last thing I had to ask Leigh since she makes cupcakes for a living. What is her best selling Valentines cupcake. She shared that by far the red velvet cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting on top. She sells them by the dozen and individually and quite honestly can't make enough of them. Here customers just keep coming back for more. Well, Leigh that was very insightful and quite frankly delicious sounding. Happy Valentines Day!
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