February 15, 2015

Retro Conversational Hearts Pastel Cupcakes


Most of the time, a skinny sweet treat with suffice, but other times, you want to treat your loved ones (and yourself) to a decadent sugary cake. The kind of cake that transports you to childhood birthday parties, that makes you want to lick the bowl clean of mixture and nibble on lollies designed to adorn your baking creation.

Sanctuary Cove sweet shop

A visit to Sanctuary Cove's (a coastal town on the Gold Coast) old fashioned retro sweet shop inspired the cupcake design as I found a super cute packet of conversation hearts. This store has every type of sweet you could imagine, ranging from real American candies to British lollies. Some of my favourites were giant pillowy American marshmallows for smores, pineapple lollies and peanut butter m&ms!

I picked up the conversational hearts because a) they are so adorable and b) I knew Valentines Day was approaching and these would be perfect to top off retro cupcakes. I hope you were super spoiled by your lover, friends and yourself!




Sweet Cherry Conversational Hearts Pastel Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

  • 1 cup of self raising flour
  • 1/2 cup of caster sugar
  • 120 grams of unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup of milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 packet of sliced glaced red cherries
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Icing:

  • 1/2 cup of cream cheese
  • 1 cup of icing sugar mix
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • mixed food colourings
  • conversational hearts

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line two cupcake trays with liners.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy and add in two eggs, preferably at room temperature. Beat until combined.
  3. Add in the flour, milk, vanilla and cherries and beat lightly until combined.
  4. Fill cupcake liners 2/3rds full with mixture and bake for 12 - 15 minutes until cooked through.
  5. Leave to cool. Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese and slowly add the icing sugar until creamy. In separate bowls, add a tiny amount of food colouring to dye each icing bowl a pastel colour. Ice cupcakes and top with heart.



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