A Valentine's Idea

Well. Today was supposed to be a post about Red Velvet Cupcakes. I had this great idea, but unfortunately, the finished product didn't end up quite as great as it did in my head. So I'll just leave you with an idea to create your own.

So far this Valentine's week we've covered the hearts and the chocolate. But what about flowers? Those grocery store roses are seriously overpriced and end up dying within 2 days, so why not give some flowers that won't break the bank. Why not put them on top of cupcakes?

Okay so they don't look quite as pretty as I'd hoped. I pictured this pretty bouquet of flowers atop a vibrant and delicious red velvet cupcake. What I got were hastily made wimpy roses sitting on subpar bland cupcakes. (The roses were totally my fault. I attempted to make them this morning while distracted by Glee on Hulu. The cupcakes.. I won't take credit for that one. And I'll leave names unmentioned.) But! I still like the idea. I think it could work out really well with the right recipe (or even a box mix.) For much prettier roses check out the little "how to" I did awhile back. Those turned out MUCH better! Or if that's a little more effort than you want to put into it, simply cut strips of fondant and roll them up to make ribbon roses. (See this quick video at CakeJournal for a visual.)

I was a bit disappointed with the way my roses looked on the cupcake, so I decided to break out my little heart cutter I used to cut the center of my Linzer cookies with and make little heart toppers.

Much cuter!  I added the diamond pattern to it by pressing my bench scraper (or a knife) lightly onto the hearts in a criss cross shape. The sprinkles are actually crumbled up cupcake that I sacrificed, but you could certainly use any kind of sprinkle you like.


Hopefully I'll have better luck tomorrow with the one thing I've been absolutely terrified of making.. caramel.