Valentine's Day Cupcake Disaster

Hi guys!

Not a conventional post from me today... As we all know, Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and in honour I thought I would get my creative on in the kitchen and bake up some adorable Valentine's cupcakes. I even found a gorgeous plate with hearts on it and heart-shaped silicone baking moulds. 

£2.99 for 12 from HomeSense - bargain!

It started well, with a simple vanilla cupcake mixture - standard two eggs, 110g each of SF flour, sugar & butter and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. 

They went in the oven in their cute little moulds and came out golden-brown, risen (albeit a little on the lumpy side) and ready for some icing. 

I had even bought marshmallows and glitter to make a marshmallow buttercream frosting (which also didn't go too disastrously, although did get a bit thin and runny on the lumpy cakes...). 

Regular buttercream with 100g of marshmallows melted slightly in the microwave all stirred together - yum!

So, with my cupcakes iced and ready for decorative finishing, I had big ideas. Card stencils of lovehearts to leave pink glittery shapes on the top, marshmallow heart shapes, maybe even stripes of glitter...

What I actually achieved was no better than a four-year-old could do. In fact, I'd argue a four-year-old could likely do better. The card stencil stuck to the icing. The glitter did not stick to the icing. The glitter went everywhere. The decorative marshmallows do not look remotely heart shaped. The only redeeming quality here is the plate. The 99p plate. BUT I TRIED!

Sob...

I was going to scrap this whole post and just quietly mourn my cupcake disaster. But having made the effort and bought the supplies, I decided I might as well give you all a little light Sunday evening amusement. And if it's any consolation, they do taste pretty good. 

Fingers crossed my next adventure with baking goes a little better than this...

JAM x