Love is in the air and so is the delicious aroma of baked cupcakes.

If you’re planning on spending Valentine’s Day at home or want to bake something as an affectionate gesture for your Valentine, this simple recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes will have their mouth watering.

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

• 150g self-raising flour
• 15g golden caster sugar
• 60g butter
• 10g cocoa powder
• 40ml red food colouring
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 120ml buttermilk
• 1 large egg

Ingredients for the cream cheese frosting:

• 50g butter – at room temperature
• 300g sifted icing sugar
• 125g full-fat cream cheese

Method for cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas mark 4.
2. Whisk all of the butter and golden caster sugar in a bowl.
3. Once mixed well, add the egg.
4. In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to form a paste. Add this to the butter mixture and mix well until the paste has evened out.
5. Gradually mix in the buttermilk and flour until you have a smooth batter.
6. Place some cupcake cases onto plain oven trays and spoon in the batter individually until two-thirds full. Our Valentine’s day cupcake cases are perfect for this recipe.
7. Put the cupcakes into the oven for 20 minutes.

Method for cream cheese frosting:

1. Mix the butter and icing sugar.
2. Add the cream cheese and mix until the frosting is light and fluffy.
3. Place the frosting into the refrigerator whilst you wait for the cupcakes to finish baking.

Finishing the cupcakes:

1. Once the cupcakes have cooled down, use an icing bag to decorate the cupcakes with the frosting.
2. If you’ve baked the cupcakes hours before your date or are taking them to your lover, a cupcake carrier will keep the cupcakes looking pretty.
3. If you want to go further with decoration, you can crumble one of the baked cupcakes onto the frosting as in the image below.

Dealz have some great Valentines gifts, cards and accessories for everyone, take a look! If you have any ideas you would like to share, leave a reply below.

And remember to Like Us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and sign up to receive our newsletter if you want to keep up to date with all the Valentine’s Day offers and competitions!