Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Okay, so Valentine's Day isn't for another month, but why wait! I love pink and I couldn't resist opening my new Valentine's sprinkles. Plus, my friend is moving away and these are her favorite. I made a new take on my Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes. For this batch I did not use champagne; I did not have any on hand and I wasn't going to buy and open a new bottle for just over a cup. Instead, I used 1 1/4 cups of a Jamaican Breeze wine cooler. This added more flavor than the champagne and still added the light fluffiness with the carbonation in it.


The batter becomes this beautiful light, silky, fluffy, pink, strawberry scented mixture.



I only ever bake one pan at a time on the center rack. I have a small oven, but this is best practice if you do not have a convection oven. If you must bake more than one batch, leave at least one inch of room around each pan and switch position in oven and rotate half way through. Please ignore my messy oven, it would have been cleaned if it knew it was getting a close up.




Once they come out, they are a light hue of pink. If they are golden brown you have cooked them too long.

These are the finished product. I added some strawberry puree to a can of vanilla frosting to make a thin icing. Then, I dipped them in it just enough to coat the tops. Finally, I added various Valentine's Sprinkles. I also left some without icing and just topped them with a dusting of powdered sugar and I think they were my favorite of the whole bunch. They looked like a perfect little tea cake and they weren't over powered by the sweetness of the icing.