Meals I Can Make: Frosted Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and we came up with the perfect family friendly recipe for you to create at home to celebrate! We used one of our favorite cupcake recipes and with the help of the Colorate.Life Cupcake Kit we created some gorgeous and fun treats.

We love the Colorate.Life Cupcake Kits for so many reasons (ease, great selection of colors, How-To videos), but most of all because of how vibrant and beautiful they make our cupcakes! Colorate.Life Cupcake Kits has offered JessicaSimpson.com customers a 20% code to try it yourself: code "JESS" will get that for you. Happy creating, can't wait to see what you make! 

Enjoy!

Team JS

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 and 2/3 cup (209g) all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup (60g) vanilla Greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup (180ml) vanilla almond milk or regular milk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Frosting:

• One jar Pillsbury white frosting
• One Colorate.Life Cupcake Kit of your choice

Directions: 

1.

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.

2.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Whisk in sugar – mixture will be gritty. Whisk in egg whites, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract until combined. Split 1 vanilla bean down the middle lengthwise. Scrape seeds from half of the vanilla bean into batter. Reserve other half.

3.

Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no lumps remain. Batter will be thick

4.

Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool.

5.

Use Colorate.Life Cupcake Kit mixed with Pillsbury White Frosting to create the color mix of your choice and frost your creations! 

Cupcake Frosting Tips: 

1.

Cut the nozzle first – this avoids air pockets that later prevent the frosting from filling the OodleTip® pastry bag. Cut the nozzle at approximately the 1/2” point (about half way up the nozzle).

2.

Pull the OodleTip® pastry bag down into the filling stand (the packaging tube) so that the tip of the nozzle almost reaches the end.

3.

When folding the ends of the OodleTip® pastry bag over the filling stand rim, pull so that the OodleTip® pastry bag wall on the inside is as flat as possible against the inside wall of the filling stand and the tip of the nozzle is still near the end of the filling stand.

4.

Spread the gel starting at just above the top of the nozzle in a “striping” motion up the side of the wall of the OodleTip® pastry bag.

5.

The gel may seem to “congeal” – that is okay as long as you have striped the entire wall

6.

Use a spoon to “drop” the frosting into the OodleTip® pastry bag and not touch the sides.

7.

Tap the filling stand on the counter as you fill the OodleTip® pastry bag with frosting to settle the frosting and remove air bubbles.

8.

Refrigerate the bag of frosting for 15 minutes before dispensing (this step is crucial!). 

9.

Dispense the frosting by first building a “dollop” in the center of each cupcake – this uses up the initial frosting that comes out that does not have the coloration.

Recipe by Sally's Baking Addiction, Cupcakes styled by Kara Stout