Cupcake Kits: Valentines Edition

Out of the Ordinary

I was contacted by someone very near and dear to me, asking if I could make something that I hadn't ever made before. She wanted a dozen cupcakes but didn't want them decorated. I thought that was odd but after hearing the idea, it sounded so fun! And I wanted to make sure to share it with all of you. I cannot take full credit for this idea. She had seen this on social media and thought it would be a great idea for Valentines Day! I agreed but decided to do it my own way so I wasn't completely copying the original idea.

Here were my instructions: a dozen chocolate cupcakes, buttercream, and sprinkles. I had full creative freedom, as long as they were able to decorate cupcakes together. I was more than excited to get this project started so I got to work! First up, planning everything out. I already had the chocolate cake recipe; everyone I've made it for raves over it. And my buttercream is just as high on that list. The biggest part to plan out was supplies and packaging. I wanted to make sure that it looked perfect and was easy to access everything. I already had a cake box that I was sure everything would fit into. I made a list of the things I needed and ran to the store.

The closest store in my area for baking supplies, oddly enough, is Hobby Lobby. Who doesn't love Hobby Lobby? I probably moseyed around the baking aisles for half an hour, looking and thinking of all the things I could do and how to do it. I found cute, little pink containers for sprinkles and buttercream, the tiniest little pink scoops that would be perfect for sprinkling sprinkles, and Valentines themed everything. I decided to go a little over the top when I found heart-shaped plates to use. I got plates, a tablecloth, little red and pink spoons, and heart cupcake toppers. I was more than excited to get to work on this cupcake kit! I was ecstatic! I rushed home and got to baking!

First up, the cupcakes! I got all my ingredients out and premeasured, went ahead and preheated the oven, and lined the tin with cupcake papers. These chocolate cupcakes are so easy to make and are so delicious. They always turn out soft and spongey, moist little cakes with the best chocolate flavor. I had the batter ready just as the oven was preheated. I spooned about 3 tablespoons into each paper and into the oven they went! I had extra batter left so I got another cupcake tin out and got 8 more scooped out. I got the kitchen cleaned up and ingredients out for the buttercream. Before I left for the store, I forgot to set my butter out to soften, so I wasn't ready to make buttercream yet. Here's a little hack: I grabbed my metal mixing bowl and filled it with the hottest water that would come out of the sink. I let the water sit for about a minute, dumped the water out, and turned it upside down over my four sticks of butter. The temperature from the bowl would soften the butter quicker than just leaving it out. I also moved it closer to the oven so the heat from that would help it as well.

Since I couldn't make buttercream yet, I decided to get all the other supplies and packaging out. I had three different kinds of sprinkles to use, so I filled the little pink tins with sprinkles, added the little scoop, and put the lid on. These were so cute and the little scoop was the perfect addition. I was already in love with it all! I put the cupcake box together and added these little cupcake holders I bought. I've used these before and they are awesome! It's just a cardboard cutout with 6 holes to put the cupcakes it. They ensure the cupcakes don't slide all over the box. They were the perfect size in the box for the 12 cupcakes and all the other supplies. I also got some spoons so they could be used to spread the frosting on the cupcakes. I got two different shades of pink, so I alternated the colors of spoons into a stack, and put them into a treat bag, with 12 cupcake toppers. I put the tablecloth, heart plates, the treat bag, and sprinkles into the box. By this time, the cupcakes were ready to come out of the oven. The extras went in and I moved the freshly baked ones onto a cooling rack. All that was left was the buttercream!

The butter was soft enough to start the buttercream, so into the mixer with it! I like to whip the butter for quite a while. I feel like the longer it whips, the fluffier the buttercream is. I let it whip while I searched for the food coloring. I wasn't asked for any color, but plain white buttercream sounded so boring for such fun activity. I decided to go with pink and red. However, the red didn't come out as red as I would have liked. It was more of a very dark pink, but it paired well with the light pink I had made. Both colors got whipped into a frenzy and scooped into piping bags and tied off, ready for the box. They got tied with a little white ribbon, as did the treat bag with the spoons. I probably rearranged the box a million times before I was happy with how everything fit together. The cupcakes were finally cool enough to add to the box, and I was so happy with how it looked! I was so excited to see the look on my customers face! Everything looked perfect. I don't think words express how ecstatic I was about this project. I printed a logo and a heart sticker, and it was ready to be picked up!

To make it even better, I had someone buy the extra cupcakes from me and I got to make two more mini cupcake kits! Each of these had 4 cupcakes each, 2 containers of sprinkles with scoops, 2 containers of pink buttercream, and a treat bag with spoons and cupcake toppers. These two boxes also got a logo and a heart sticker to seal the box, and these were ready to go!

All these boxes were so cute and just so fun to make! And every customer was very delighted and more than ready to get home and decorate cupcakes with their loved ones! And a happy customer makes my big baking heart overflow with joy. Seeing the satisfaction from my customers is what makes all of this more than worth it. If you want to see the behind-the-scenes video of the cupcake kits, check out the Lovingly Whisked Facebook or Instagram pages! Both are linked below! Thank you so much for being here. I hope you enjoyed the story. The recipe for the cupcakes is linked in the story, but in case you didn't see it, here it is! Stay tuned for more sweet stories, and as always, take care, and go bake something! <3