Red Velvet for Valentine's Day

I decided to make Red Velvet cupcakes, so my kids and I could treat our friends for Valentine's Day.  I don't have a recipe for this and did a search coming up with Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cupcakes.

It looked fairly simple.  I had all the ingredients, but buttermilk.  The recipe surprised me that it only had 1 tsp of cocoa powder.  The batter mixed up easily.

My handy dandy cookie scoop always makes filling cupcake tins so easy.

Into the convection oven they went for 20 minutes.

They baked up perfectly.  No mushroom top to fight with when frosting.

I was told to not beat the batter too much and do not fill the cupcake tins too much for that nice flat top to frost.

I used a large star shaped icing tip to swirl on the frosting.

I figured out that I liked starting from the center and working out in a circular pattern.  Better than starting on the outside and working my way in.  Personal preference.  I thought they looked kind of rose like when I started from the center.

To top things off I used a Wilton heart shaped plastic candy tray to form the chocolate hearts.  So, simple.  Melt Wilton red chocolate in microwave in a plastic bag.  Cut tip off corner of bag.  Pipe melted chocolate into plastic heart shape molds.  Stick tray in freezer for about 15 minutes.  The hearts pop right out.

Everyone has cupcakes to treat their friends tomorrow.