These Strawberry Valentine’s Day Cupcakes feature a sweet cake topped with cream cheese frosting and a fun candy topper. The colors, flavors, and festive decorations make these the perfect Valentine’s Day cupcakes!
I love any excuse to make fun and festive treats for the holidays!
But I don’t always (read: never) have a lot of time on my hands, so any treats I make need to be as easy as possible.
These strawberry Valentine’s Day Cupcakes are the perfect recipe because they:
- Are semi-homemade. The base recipe starts with a boxed cake mix so you won’t be spending too much time measuring out ingredients.
- Will look perfect on your Valentine’s Day table. The pink cupcake, white frosting, and cute candy toppers make these the perfect dessert for a day of love!
- Taste delicious! A few extra ingredients in the cake and some homemade frosting make these homemade cupcakes bakery quality.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Add 15 ounces of boxed strawberry cake mix to a medium mixing bowl. Slowly pour in 3/4 cup of milk, 1/3 cup oil, 1/2 cup sour cream, and 3 eggs while mixing the batter together with electric beaters on medium-low speed.
Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally to make sure everything is getting mixed and only mix until all the flour pockets are gone.
Place liners in a cupcake tin and lightly spray the liners with cooking spray. Fill the liners until they are 2/3 of the way full.
Bake at 350 degrees for 19-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Repeat with remaining batter.
Allow the cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes and then place them on a baking rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting, add 8 ounces of softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup of softened unsalted butter to a medium mixing bowl and beat on medium speed with electric beaters until smooth.
Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 4 cups of powdered sugar a little at a time and beat on medium-high speed until all of the sugar is incorporated. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To make the candy toppers, melt 2 ounces of red, pink, or white candy melts in the microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH. Stir and repeat until completely melted. (If using white candy melts, add pink or red food coloring).
Place a piece of parchment paper over the topper template. Pour the melted chocolate into a piping bag and use a writing tip to trace the template. Add Valentine’s sprinkles if desired. Place the toppers in the fridge to set.
To assemble the cupcakes, let the frosting sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before use. Add the frosting to a piping bag and use a round tip to pipe a ribbon of frosting on the top of the cupcake.
Gently remove the chocolate topper from the parchment paper and press it onto the top of the cupcake (this will be easiest if the frosting is soft).
Refrigerate any leftover cupcakes.
Recipes Tips and Substitutions
Make sure you don’t over-mix the batter or you could have very dense cupcakes. After incorporating all of the wet ingredients, you can always use a whisk to break up the flour pockets so you don’t overmix.
Using a cookie or ice cream scoop makes it easy to fill all of the cupcake liners.
I like to lightly spray the liners with cooking spray so that the cupcakes are less likely to stick. Or you can use grease-proof liners.
I made 12 regular-sized cupcakes and 20 mini cupcakes with this recipe. If you fill the liners 2/3 of the way full, you could probably get 18 cupcakes with the batter.
Along those lines, I only did a thin layer of frosting on the mini cupcakes, so there won’t be enough to completely frost 18 cupcakes the way they look in the pictures. You would need to double or 1.5x the frosting recipe to have enough.
You can always free-hand the toppers, but to make it easier, I created a template that you can download here!
I had white candy melts on hand, but you can buy red and pink melts so you don’t have to color the candy once it’s melted.
Baked goods don’t usually turn out the same when you make substitutions, but certain ingredients aren’t always available, or are too expensive, or you may be allergic, so here are some options for a few of the ingredients in this recipe:
- Candy melts substitutes
- Substitute for butter
- Substitute for eggs
- Substitute for sour cream
- Substitute for cream cheese
- Substitute for vegetable oil
Because these cupcakes have cream cheese frosting, you will need to refrigerate any leftovers in an airtight container.
More Like This
Looking for more fun Valentine’s Day recipes? You’ll love these!
FAQs
If you don’t have professional piping bags, you can use regular sandwich bags! Just place the bag over a small cup and fill it with the frosting and melted chocolate. Snip a large piece of the corner off for the frosting and a very small piece off for the melted chocolate.
The candy toppers are very delicate so you have to be extra careful when you’re removing them from the parchment paper. Don’t press too hard when you’re putting them on the cupcake or they can break.
To keep the toppers from breaking, make sure you’re piping a big enough line of candy and make sure all of the strokes are connected.
If you do have some break, there should be plenty of melted candy wafers so you can make them again!
We all know that you should let butter and cream cheese sit out at room temperature for about an hour before using it in baking recipes. But sometimes you just forget! So here are a few tricks for quickly softening butter and cream cheese.
For cream cheese, I like to put it on my stovetop while the oven is preheating. I have a gas oven so the heat comes through to the stovetop and makes the cream cheese nice and soft by the time I need to use it.
Alternatively, you can put the cream cheese completely unwrapped on a microwave-safe plate and microwave it on high for 10 seconds at a time until you can easily press your finger in the center and it feels warm, not hot.
There are a few methods to quickly soften butter.
The first is to heat 2 cups of water in the microwave like they do in this tutorial. Place the cut butter in a bowl and then place the bowl in the microwave. The heat from the boiling water will soften the butter in about 10 minutes.
Or you can cut the butter into small cubes like I did in the photos and let them sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
Love these strawberry Valentine’s Day cupcakes? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below. If you really like the recipe consider leaving a comment at the end of the post. Thanks for visiting!
And if you’d like to get the template I used for the toppers, just enter your email in the form above and you’ll get it straight to your inbox!
Strawberry Valentine’s Day Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 15.25 ounces boxed strawberry cake mix
- ¾ cup milk
- ⅓ cup oil
- ½ cup sour cream
- 3 eggs
Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Toppers
- 2 ounces red, pink, or white candy melts
Instructions
For The Cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Add strawberry cake mix to a medium mixing bowl. Slowly pour in milk, oil, sour cream, and eggs while mixing the batter together with electric beaters on medium-low speed.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally to make sure everything is getting mixed and only mix until all the flour pockets are gone.
- Place liners in a cupcake tin and lightly spray the liners with cooking spray. Fill the liners until they are 2/3 of the way full.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 19-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Repeat with remaining batter.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes and then place them on a baking rack to cool completely.
For The Frosting
- Add softened cream cheese and butter to a medium mixing bowl and beat on medium speed with electric beaters until smooth.
- Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar a little at a time and beat on medium-high speed until all of the sugar is incorporated. Refrigerate until ready to use.
For Candy Toppers
- Melt candy melts in the microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH. Stir and repeat until completely melted. (If using white candy melts, add pink or red food coloring).
- Place a piece of parchment paper over the topper template. Pour the melted chocolate into a piping bag and use a writing tip to trace the template. Add Valentine's sprinkles if desired. Place the toppers in the fridge to set.
To Assemble The Cupcakes
- Let the frosting sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before use. Add the frosting to a piping bag and use a round tip to pipe a ribbon of frosting on the top of the cupcake.
- Gently remove the chocolate topper from the parchment paper and press it onto the top of the cupcake (this will be easiest if the frosting is soft).
- Refrigerate any leftover cupcakes.