I always see cake moulds at Michael's that allow you to bake a heart inside a cake. I think those are super cute to make. But I really couldn't justify dropping $50 for a mould that I won't be using very often. So, I attempted my own and made these adorable heart-in-cupcakes just in time for Valentine's day. And, I'm going to show you how I did it! All you need to do is find a simple and moist cupcake recipe to use as a base.

Here are the basic instructions:

1. Separate 1/3 of the cake batter and dye them using pink or red food colouring
2. With a flat/square baking tray, pour coloured cake batter and bake less than the suggested time of the full recipe or until it is firm (the depth of the risen cake after it is baked should not be more than an inch)
3. After the coloured cake has cooled completely. Use a small heart shape cutter (smaller than the cupcake size) and cut out heart shapes from the cake. Wrap them up with saran wrap and freeze them a bit so it is firm.
4. Pour the remaining 2/3rd cake batter onto lined cupcake trays and insert each heart vertically onto the batter. The batter should hold the heart upright. Fill the cupcake trays with batter or even over the heart so it will be supported and hidden once baked.
5. Cover the baking tray with tinfoil and bake for the full suggested time of the recipe.
6. Spread frosting of your choice on top of the cupcakes.

Make your own cutter with metal sheet! Fondant silicon impression mat that was originally a choker from Swatch.

Materials: 

• Tiny marshmallows
• Water
• Powdered sugar
• Royal icing
• Chocolate silver balls
• Small flower cutter
• Small heart shaped cutter (I don't have a small one so I make one out of metal sheet)
• Floral impression mat 

For Decorations:

1. I made my fondants out of marshmallows.  All you need to do is microwave the marshmallows in a bowl for 30 seconds with half a tablespoon of water until they are fully melted.
2. Then you add powdered sugar in them and stir until the consistency is thick enough for moulding.
3. Then I use a toothpick and apply blue and pink food colouring onto my marshmallow fondants, so I have two separate batch for my decorations.
4. I rolled out the blue fondant to about 1/4 in thick and use a floral matt to imprint the pattern onto the fondant. Then I use a circle cutter  (slightly larger than the size of the cupcake) and cut them out to wrap over the top of the frosted cupcakes.
5. I use a small flower shape cutter and cut out shapes of pink fondant. Press the center of the flower onto a small ice cube tray so that it is not flat. Leave the flowers dry a bit.
6. Using royal icing, "glue" silver chocolate balls onto the center of the dried fondant flowers
7. Dip the bottom of the flowers with royal icing or water and "glue" onto the top of the cupcake.
8. And there you have it!

Check out my Cake Art and Food Art for more ideas.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial! Have a great one!