Sweetheart Cupcakes

HOW TO INCREASE A 15.25 OZ CAKE MIX TO 18.25 OZ. Either buy an extra box of cake mix or make your own. Super-Coupon Queen Jill Cataldo said, the formula for Three-Ounce Cake Mix “Upsizer” goes as follows: Whisk together 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. “Store in a clean mason jar. When you wish to increase a 15.25 ounce cake mix to 18.25 ounces, add three ounces of this mix (6 tablespoons) to your existing cake mix.” Hi! I am the submitter of this (technique) recipe. I know using a box cake really isn't a recipe, but Allrecipes contacted me asking me to submit this because of the requests they received. So with that said, I submitted this so everyone can use my technique and have fun. You can use a box cake or a cake from scratch. I used Wilton (No Taste) RED concentrated paste icing color, and added a few drops of raspberry candy oil to the pink batter for flavor. You can add any flavor candy oil or extract. Someone asked how to get the swirled look on the frosting. Here is how it's done: Paint a vertical stripe maybe 5" or so on the inside of a pastry bag, using a gel or paste tint. Starting at the tip end, you can paint one stripe, two stripes (side by side or one stripe on each side of the bag), or use different colors and paint a bunch of stripes. Just depends on the look you want. Then add your frosting, and swirl it on the cupcake. I hope that made sense.

These are so adorable. Just a note-- make sure you push the tip of the bag (with colored mix) down into the white batter so you get the effect of the picture. My first batch had more of a tri layered look instead of the centered colored look. Oops. :)

Awesome! I just finished making these as a trial run for Valentine's Day and they are *so* cute. I did use Wilton gel coloring in pink and red, as that's what I had on hand (just mixed in until I got the shades I was looking for). I can't wait to use this technique for other holidays. For those of you who want to achieve the colored stripes in your icing, simply paint a stripe about 5" long down each side of your piping bag with gel coloring. You can use one color or multiple colors, depending on the look you're going for. Carefully fill the bag with icing and start playing! Thanks so much for sharing, Celeste! ♥

these worked out great. i wanted to make 24 cupcakes but ran out of batter by about cupcake #12 so if you want a full batch make sure to use 2 packages of cake mix which will give you about 27 cupcakes in total.

I made green for St. Patrick's Day and instead of using the 3rd tinted cake batter, I made mint chocolate ganache for the center of the cupcakes. FABULOUS!! Ganache: 13 ounces heavy cream, 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate and 6 ounces Andes Mint Chips. In a sauce pan bring your cream to a light boil. Then pour in the chocolate and start stirring immediately. Keep going until you have a smooth mixture. Turn off your burner and set aside to cool. Once room temp, use in place of the 3rd tinted cake mix. I used this and store bought white icing piped together for the icing. The overall presentation wasn't near as well done as it could have been, but they really were great tasting.

I had a similar idea for my baby annoncement but wasn't sure how to tackle it exactly. . . now I know! When I find out the gender of the "bun in my oven," I will use pink or blue batter in the cupcakes I plan to bring to my office that afternoon and will even drop some by my 4 yr old's daycare. This is a PERFECT way to announce it during an afternoon cupcake toast with my friends at work and for my daughter to share with her friends.

Hi! I've been making a variation of this technique for many years. You may want to try this technique for a different look: Instead of piping the colored cake batter into the center of the cupcake as described, use a Tablespoon full of one color batter and place it in the cup. Then take another Tablespoon of batter and place it next or on top of the first one. Then take another color and do the same thing. Repeat until you reach the desired amount of batter in the cupcake holders. Finally, take a long wooden skewer (or similar), place it inside the batter and swirl the batter around a bit - just like you would if you were making a marble cake. This technique results in a "tie-dyed" look which is very retro and fun! Enjoy!

I made these for my daughters class for her birthday. They were a HUGE hit. So fun when the kids discovered there was something different inside. I added cocoa to the extra batter instead of food coloring. So good!

These are soooo cute! I'm going to mix in some strawberry extract with the pink batter for a more unique flavor!

It was awesome! The family loved it! It was an easy way to add some spark to your usual cupcakes. I will definitely use it for other occasions. I added strawberry extract to the pink batter and it tasted great! Will be a staple in our household.

Awesome idea and SO easy! Used this for my daughters birthday party this week and am going to use it again for Valentines treats. For those asking about how to streak the frosting like she did you just streak the inside of the piping bag with gel food coloring.

I've had my eye on this recipe for a bit now...and although Valentine's day would have been the ideal day to make these, being pressed for time, I made these a few days later! So yum and SO CUTE!! I made a few basic changes (out of choice) although no real changes to the recipe. The first, was to make a white cake batter from scratch for which I used Simple White Cake (by Scottosman - recipe on this site). So I ofcourse skipped the veg oil, egg whites, and water. The second was to only make red batter and skip the pick 'coz I was a bit short of batter!! The third was to use 1 1/4 teaspoon of strawberry essence to the red batter. So delish, everybody CRAVED for more!! Oh n I skipped frosting them just coz I was trying out the recipe and a tad bit lazy! They're perfect with frosting ... expect the frosting would complete the presentation! I can't wait to make this again ... and then try this with different centers!! Thanks Celeste ... this recipe has made a definite place in my heart forever!! :)

CLEVER!! Family is coming to visit and I knew the grandchildren would love these. They are very festive for our 4th of July celebration. Thanks Celeste for sharing such a clever technique!

I just made these cupcakes and they are so super cute. My son has a Valentine's Day Party and I thought these cupcakes were perfect. The only thing I would add is when you put the colored batter in the cupcake make sure you put the tip deep into the white batter or the cupcake will have just a small dot in the middle. Very Cool!

This made sort of layers for me rather than the pretty pattern others got -- I probably didn't press the tip down far enough. I have an actual piping tip that would work great for this, and I'll use that next time. Thank you for sharing! (P.S. I used this method with AR's "White Almond Wedding Cake" and liked the flavor of the cake. I do NOT like the flavor of Wilton's "leaf green" food coloring, blech, FYI. It didn't ruin my cakes but it's pretty noticeable -- just a tip for others who might want to use that color.)

great! I made these for a gender reveal party when I was pregnant. Instead of red food coloring I used BLUE since I was having a baby boy. It was a huge hit! :)

We made these for St. Patrick's Day and they were perfect! They were super easy to put together and turned out so cute (and fun) with the green icing. We topped with cream cheese frosting and couldn't be happier! Thanks for sharing the technique - I'm sure we will make these again and again :o)

These cupcakes turned out great. I filled them almost to the top of the liner and they rose into a beautiful dome. I left out the flavoring/extract.

This worked really well! It was a nice surprise for those who ate it to see pink in the middle! I will definetly use this technique again! What a great idea. Next time I am going to try it with different flavors.

very cool idea that could be done with any cake mix

Fun! This is a recipe that definitely needs some practice to master. I didn't do too bad for my first attempt. I did run out of the pink and red batters, and ended up with some plain cupcakes. So be sure to not add too much of the white batter to the cups. I used my 1.5 Tbsp. cookie scoop to measure out the white batter, and ended up adding some extra to each cup - I shouldn't have added the extra! Live and learn. I didn't have raspberry candy oil, so I added 1 tsp. raspberry flavoring. I frosted them with Rick's Special Buttercream Frosting from this site and added 1 tsp. raspberry flavoring to that too. What a beautiful, yummy treat for my hubby this Valentine's Day!

Great recipe, kids loved it!!! Was a little messy getting the different colors all together from plastic bag, I ended up using a decorating bag and outline tip to fill each color, worked great. Add about 1/3 flour to cake mix, as we are above 7,000 ft. Will make again!!!

These are adorable and so much easier than I anticipated. Can't wait to make them for other holidays and my daughter's upcoming birthday party. Thank you.

A gorgeous idea, so elegant looking!

I made these for st patricks day.I used one color(green) and flavored it with a bit of mint extract.It worked well made the cupcakes a bit more fun for the kiddos.will make again

I made these for a st pattys party and they were a major hit! I used mint extract for the green area flavoring instead of the raspberry which was delicious.

This was a really fun cupcake to make. I need some more practice because I didn't get the two color effect. I will keep trying though until I get it right. I was actually proud of myself for getting at least one color in place. I thought for sure I'd mix it and come out with a one color (light pink) cupcake. A fun project.

So simple! Looks very impressive - I can't believe how easy it was. I used McCormick food coloring and McCormick Strawberry extract. The kids love it.

So cute, just one thing, my cupcakes shrivled up a bit and the tops were very cracked. This wouldn't stop me from making them again though:)

Super cute. Everyone loves them!

Cupcakes with a magic touch. Celeste these are charming!

Very Easy, Very cute, & Tasty! I made these for my daughters valentine parties as well as for the hospital staff that has been caring for my husband during his stay, and everyone loved them! Thanks Celeste for a fantastic treat for my family and friends!

Loved this idea, and it was super easy to do. Followed others tips on making sure you push the tip of the bag to the bottom. These turned out super cute!

I made these for my son's Sunday school class and they loved them, even the teachers raved. What's great about these is I use them year round by alternating the colors. Really creative idea.

These look wonderful. Unfortunately, they taste like you made plain white cake which is just what they are except food coloring has been added. won't make again.

These were so much fun to make, we put a Mardi Gras spin on them. We used purple and green on the inside and yellow and purple on the icing with green sugar sprinkled on them. They were so pretty. I put some pictures to show you.

turned out good i didnt have a pastry bag so i tried it in a regular ziploc bag so i couldnt really puch it down in there so they ended up looking like layer. i used vamilla ician with a couple of drops of red coloring and used a knife and made only a couple swirls and then put it on so it kind of had a marbling effect. Awsome cupcakes will def make again!!!

I just made these for Valentine's Day on Saturday and they were very cute and tasty! I've only rated the recipes 4 stars, however, because there was not enough batter for 24 cupcakes! Because I had already filled 24 liners 1/3 full with batter, I ended up with 5 or 6 seriously small cupcakes. I think if I make it again I will aim for a count of 18, which is more realistic after having made the recipel

CUTE!

Awesome tip for making VERY impressive cupcakes! I only used two flavors (chocolate and vanilla) and took them to work. Everyone kept coming up to my desk with a "How'd you DO it?!" Def a keeper!

These cupcakes were a success! I did not have rasberry candy oil and used strawberry extract flavoring instead. I used a medicine dropper to inject the red and pink batter. This worked out perfectly! Thanks for the excellent recipe!

These cupcakes are so cute, fun and very easy to make. I couldn't find the flavored oil at any of my local grocery or craft stores, so following other reviewers' advice, I just added cherry flavored extract. What a waste: you couldn't even tell it was there. And I added a lot! I used a pastry bag and tip to make sure I got the colored batter all the way to the bottom. I iced them with "Wedding Cake Frosting" from this site using the colored swirl technique that Celeste described. They came out looking like they came straight from the bakery. Beautiful!

Great idea, works perfect... instead of bags for the coloured batter I used my plastic icing containers to squirt it in. Kept my four year old busy for quite a while helping me create rainbow cupcakes... we used blue and pink batter.

What a great idea!!! I'm thinking that you could use this technique at any holiday --- just switch up the colors. My daughter really enjoyed making them. Thanks for the recipe!!!!

I think this is a great idea! Why would anyone EXPECT this to taste like anything else BESIDES a box cake mix? That is all it is! And to me, that is the beauty of it. So simple, so quick and you can do it with any recipe you like. Thank you for this simple and fun trick!

Thanks for sharing such a great idea! I made these for a company lunch and everybody complimented me on their cuteness!

Thanks for sharing your technique! Fun for the kids!

Well, I didn't do a very good job on the first couple. They ended up being only one shade of green (for St. Patrick's Day) but I don't think I made the food coloring colors dark enough apart. Someone suggested put the tip all the way to the bottom before you squeeze the batter in, which I would definitely advise. It took me awhile to figure that out. Next time I will use icing tips to make them pretty! Despite them only being one color, they still turned out pretty neat.

I made mine with green on the outside and teal/blue in the centre. When i gave some to my neighbours they were so surprised to find such a colourful centre :)

Easy and delicious! I make them with a chocolate outside and raspberry inside with buttercream icing.. MMmmm

Awesome and so delicious.

This was a great receipe . The only reason I gave it four stars is because I could find the rasberry oil. I made this for Valentines and my family loved it!!!

Awesome!!!

Nice,tasty,fun and festive

I enjoyed doing this technique. Will continue to experiment with other colours. Happy Valentines!

Very pretty looking. Can't wait to try other colours.

I used cherry extract in the pink batter. It was awesome! Will definitely use this recipe again.

Made for a Valentine's day party. They were a HUGE hit, most people ate more than one. They were the hit of the party .. will make again.

Think I might just bake these in my granddaughters' school colors for the next bake sale. I know they should go over pretty well at any school. RD013

simple to do, and great results. you can change the colours for any occation.

Great technique! I used Devil's food & Golden butter cake mixes for a black and white party.

Cute idea. Happy Valentine's Day!

Very cute. Fun to make. Make sure to insert the tip of the bag all the way to the bottom of the cupcake to get the V look.

I made these for Valentines day this year and everyone loved them... I thought that they were cuter than they tasted though. I didnt use the raspberry flavoring so that might have helped with the flavor. I think next time i will add some strawberry flavoring to them.

I love this! The possibilities are endless - thinking green for St. Patrick's , pastels for Easter,... Thank you so much for this great idea!

Nice! I kinda felt it was a lot of work and the colouring wasn't that great...maybe I need to try it again.

I made these today for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day and they came out super cute! Thanks for the recipe!

Definatley takes pracftice- mine look tye dyed- but great idea and I will try again- I used baggies,maybe a stiffer bag would have been better

Excellent recipe, easy to adapt to any occasion. I used red and blue food color gel to make red, white and blue cupcakes. Put red and blue gel lines on side of pastry bag before fling with white whipped frosting with a star tip. The entire presentation was perfect! Thank you for the cute idea!

I only used white and one color of pink and it was really cute having the pink center. I used the Sturdy Whipped Cream Frosting from this site with it. They were like a bakery cupcake. Impressive.

So good. The cake is so fluffy and a nice switch up from eating chocolate cupcakes. I am planning to use egg whites from now on when making cupcakes

These were great. I wish I had paused and taken a picture. I put a little cherry yogurt in the pink filling since I didn't have any candy oil. They were delish!

this is such a cute idea. i did not have any flavored oil so i left it out. used canned cream cheese frosting becuse i was being lazy and they still turned out great. mine looked more like bleeding hearts instead of sweetheart cupcakes but they were still really fun to make and eat. thanks for the inspiration celeste.

These are the sweetest cupcakes yet! I probably should have practiced with my piping bag a little bit before making them, but they turned out great! Next time, darker pink batter, and i'm going to really brighten up my red. Or go green! St. Patty's day here I come!

Fantastic! I used a cherry chip cake mix and did a chocolate filling by adding a little cocoa powder to the remaining batter. That taste combo is great!

Fun, Fun, FUN! I didn't see one person who didn't smile when they ate these special treats at my Valentine's Day Dinner! I used a little Coconut Extract in the pink batter and "Cool Whip Frosting" off of this site (with 1/2 teaspoon Coconut Extract and a sprinkle of sweetened coconut over the top of all after frosting). A fantastic and festive combo. Thank you for this post, and a cheerful way to serve cupcakes. I mentioned to my husband that next time I make these - I will try my "from scratch" recipe for cake batter and frosting. He said - why mess with something that is so well recieved! I agree!:) Fast, fun, and oh so GOOD!

Can you give directions on how to make the colored frosting? I LOVE the swirl look but haven't tried it.

These little cup cakes turned out delightful! To make the red layer really red and add some flavor I added 1/2 package of strawberry Kool-aide drink mix. urned out super red and super tart!

This is a great idea. I did have problems getting the middle to look right. Next time I will use my Wilton bags and tips to put the colors in the middle instead of baggies. As they say "practice makes perfect." Doubled the recipe which made 27 big cupcakes, will put less in each next time. I used Sturdy Whipped Cream Frosting which was very good. Will try again for St. Patrick's Day. Thank you Celeste, great recipe.

Pretty easy once you get the hang of it! Good texture and taste. Impressed at party, and disappeared very quickly. The frosting recipe suggested was very tasty, but I didn't find it to be anywhere near as "stiff" as it was supposed to be. Had to cut the amount of cream down by 1/2 cup just to keep it from being too liquidy.

I made these into Christmas colored cupcakes with white, red and green. It is really hard to judge 1 and 2 tablespoons of battter being inserted into batter already in the tin, so this recipe will take some trial and error. This was my first attempt and the first color turned out a little thinner than I would have liked, so I'll have to remember to put more of that one in next time. As far as the overall idea goes, this is great for all of the holidays. I made this for a kids party, and they thought they were amazing. I piped them with green and red frosting and they turned out very cute. Will definitely use this again for future holiday kids parties!

These were very good and fun to serve. I ran out of batter for the light pink, so most of mine were only two colors. Still a success though. Thanks for the recipe!

What a delightful surprise these little treats contain! Very little effort from the baker but yields great rewards.

I gotta say, mine weren't nearly as cute as yours, Celeste. But, they were still really cute and my kids thought they were a lot of fun. Thanks for such a cool idea-we really enjoyed them!!

Fun to make and can be changed to fit any celebration or holiday!

Such a cute idea. Will change the colors for different holidays. Can't wait to make cupcakes for my son's birthday parties. Thanks for the idea.

What a great idea to make cupcakes an even more fun treat to eat! Super easy and it looks great!!!

These were very cute and a huge hit!

I tried. Had trouble with the layers but it was the first time trying. Made a simple quick thing like making cupcakes not so quick and simple.

Since Santa Rosa is my home town I had to try these. YUMMM

Cute cupcakes, the kids loved them!

Just made these with Celeste's Raspberry Frosting!!! Delish!!! Thank you for sharing Celeste! ~Val

these were excellent to do, a bit messy, but I didn't care, I think I over filled a few of them because I didn't have enough batter to do the white, pink and dark pink, but luckily I was making chocolate cup cakes and sub'ed some to make up for not having enough, it worked out perfectly. I also went all over town for raspberry or strawberry candy oil, but it was in high demand, so I lucked out with cherry, and however it was still wonderful flavoring, kids said the cupcakes tasted like the ice sandwiches....and I have to agree with them, I'll do this again. They said it was their favorite cupcake by far...Thanks Celeste.

It takes a lot of time and hardwork. But it was so good! I'm def. making these again next year for Valentines day!

I made this recipe last night for my mom's office. Her coworkers have been asking if I was a professional baker. I did not use a box mix, however, I did use the method of layering the colors as described. They turned out beautifully. As a suggestion for future users, I recommend using a sandwich sized bag and using about a cup of the batter at a time. It's a little more time consuming but it wastes less and is easier to control. I piped white chocolate buttercream frosting on these cupcakes and by 1 in the afternoon the 2 and a half dozen she brought in were all gone.

Excellent idea even if you do use a box mix as many of us do from time to time.

loved it, i did something a little different with the design and uploaded a picture...also I did mini cupcakes and they were so cute and so moist :) thanks for the idea!

Was looking for a way to make multicolored cupcakes when I found this recipe. I enjoyed the look of wonder and surprise on the faces of my family. Thanks!

This was so fun and easy. I made two batches for Valentine's Day using pink for the middle. I didn't bother with the raspberry flavoring, but I can't wait to try different color/flavor combinations for other holidays and events! So cute, thanks!