Valentine's Day Cupcakes

There is certainly no shortage of Valentine's Day cupcakes. I mean, I guess I could have made some bitter Singles Awareness Day cupcakes, but hey, I'm a sucker for holiday-themed stuff when the timing is right. Today, my family got together for dinner, and the timing was definitely right.

This was also one of my most serious attempts at baking yet. I've made some cupcakes and other good desserts in the past, but this was taking it up a notch. Until now, I've been putting off the purchase of an electric mixer for fear of a hefty price tag. But today, I bought a mixer at Target for, get ready for it, $7! It works perfectly so far...

Anyway, seeing as I'm no expert, I relied on recipes from a cupcake blog that is nothing less than inspirational. Really, some of her recipes are amazing. I followed this recipe for the cake itself, and this one for the frosting. In other words, I mixed and matched another blogger's ideas to get my Chocolate Valentine's Day Cupcakes with Pink Coconut Buttercream Frosting.



In case your wondering, I had to half the frosting recipe for my 12 cupcakes, but I ended up with less frosting than I needed. Oops. Happy Valentine's Day!