Cupid stuck his arrow into something else this year — these delicious Valentine's Day cupcakes!

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp red food coloring
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp distilled white vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 6 oz cream cheese, cold
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3-1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt

Additional Materials

• Toothpick
• 30 Thin pretzel sticks
• 15 Raspberry white chocolate Hershey Kisses
• 15 Pink heart sprinkles

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda, set aside.

3 In a separate large mixing bowl, with an electric hand mixer on medium speed, beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add red food coloring and vanilla extract and mix until combined.

4 In a small mixing bowl, combine buttermilk and 1 tsp vinegar. Add milk mixture and flour mixture to cupcake mixture, alternating in two separate batches, mixing until just combined after each addition.

5 Divide batter evenly among 15 paper lined muffin cups (or 30 mini muffin cups), filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven 18-21 minutes until toothpick inserted into centre of cupcake comes out clean.

6 Remove from oven and allow to cool about 2 minutes in muffin tin, then transfer to wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to an airtight container to cool completely (this helps them retain more moisture).

Cream Cheese Frosting 

1 In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until pale and fluffy.

2 Mix in vanilla extract.

3 Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

 

Final touches

1 Frost cooled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

2 Using a tooth pick, poke two small holes in each cupcake liner in the location where you want your pretzel "arrow" to go.

3 Insert a pretzel into each hole. Use a pretzel to carve out a hole in the flat base of each hershey kiss. Once the hole is big enough to stay on the pretzel stick, you can use a tiny bit of cream cheese frosting to secure the hershey kiss onto the pretzel stick.

4 Use another tiny bit of frosting to secure the pink heart sprinkle onto the other pretzel stick, the base of the arrow.

Recipes by Lauryn Cohen, the queen of sweet and founder of  Bella Baker — a customized, made-to-order dessert company offering everything from cake pops to highly stylized dessert tables. Known for her uniquely creative treats, Lauryn is an authority on all things baking and designs inventive desserts for every occasion.