Love Bug Cupcakes – a Valentine’s Day dessert recipe that your kids will love! Decorate a cupcake with buttercream frosting and hearts following our picture tutorial.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and that means it’s time for some lovely new tutorials and inspiration! Today’s DIY is an idea that’s been floating around in the back of my mind for three years now…. just waiting for me to give it a try. Finally, this silly little idea is making it to the blog. Good news is, I think they were worth the wait. Hopefully you agree!
Remember those cute little pom pom art projects you used to make as a kid for Valentine’s day? You know the ones… pom pom bodies, googly eyes and little antenna ears. Well, that childhood favorite is becoming a sweet little cupcake project. Super easy. Super simple. And fun enough to get the kids involved. It’s Love Bug Cupcakes!
Hold tight because these little furry guys are about to invade the blog…. it’s an attack of the Love Bug Cupcakes! And they’re here to kill you with cuteness.
Scurrying this way and that way… these Love Bug Cupcakes are just dying to ask you…
I obviously had way too much fun photographing these cupcakes! But I love their cute little faces and how their eyes can say so much, just by how you position them on the cupcake. Okay, let’s get to the tutorial, shall we?
DIY LOVE BUG CUPCAKES
a tutorial by Carrie Sellman
Supplies
cupcakes, baked without wrappers or wrappers removed
buttercream frosting
red fondant
heart shaped cutters
lollipop sticks
large candy eyeballs
pastry tip #233
STEP 1 : Roll out red fondant and cut out hearts using the large heart cutter.
STEP 2 : Repeat until you have one large heart for each of your cupcakes.
STEP 3 : Roll out more red fondant and cut out hearts using the small heart cutter. Repeat until you have four small hearts for each of your cupcakes.
STEP 4 : Place one small heart, pretty side down onto parchment paper. Place lollipop stick onto heart. Place second heart on top and press down to seal the two hearts together, lollipop stick inside. If fondant is too dry to seal together, lightly wet the inside with a light dab of water.
STEP 5 : Repeat until you have used up all of your small hearts. You should now have two of these sticks for each of your cupcakes. These are the antenna ears.
STEP 6 : Place one large heart, pretty side up onto parchment paper. Put a dab of icing onto the pointy end. Place cupcake on top, positioning over the pointy end.
STEP 7 : Fill a pastry bag with buttercream frosting and attach pastry tip #233 (aka, the Grass Tip because you use it to make grass-like decorations). Put the tip up against the cupcake and gently squeeze the bag while pulling straight out and away. Release pressure to finish the strands. Continue making short ‘hairs’ by moving just to the right of your first clump of hair and repeating the same motion to squeeze on more icing. Pipe a complete circle of icing all the way around the base of the cupcake.
NOTE : You may find it easier to gently hold the cupcake in one hand while piping with the other.
STEP 8 : Continue piping to cover the entire cupcake with icing. Circle up the cupcake, row after row.
STEP 9 : You’re almost there! Just a few more squeezes and your Love Bug will be completely covered in yummy icing.
STEP 10 : Insert two ears into top of cupcake.
STEP 11 : Gently push two candy eyes
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Red Velvet Cupcakes
Champagne and Raspberry Cupcakes
Pink Ruffle Cupcakes
Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes
Rose Cake Pops
These are so sweet. I’ve made a practice batch and am now ready to make adorable love bugs for my boyfriend on Valentines Day.
These are absolutely adorable!! Thanks for the tutorial.
So adorable ! Tks for sharing !
Since cupcakes are not naturally round, how did you make these look so perfectly round? They are adorable and definitely something I’m making this year for valentine’s day 🙂
You’re right – cupcakes are not perfectly round. But when you take the baking wrapper off, the bottom half of the cupcake tapers in. The top half naturally rounds upward. So it is basically like a round ball at that point – although very imperfect.
Once you pipe all of your icing on, going in a circular pattern from the bottom upward, it just naturally evens out.
I really do love these little bugs. They are adorable. I made a practice one with my buttercream and It didn’t hold up, the grass fur would just fall over. I used tip # 133. Do you think my buttercream isn’t stiff enough?
You do need a pretty stiff buttercream to make these. An American buttercream used for decorating is your best bet, similar to the one referenced above.
If you’re using a powdered sugar based recipe, add some additional powdered sugar to stiffen up your icing. You’ll also want to be sure that your icing does not get hot. After piping for awhile, your hand can heat up the icing inside the pastry bag and make it too soft to pipe nicely. When that happens to me, I empty out my pastry bag and refill with fresh icing, saving the discarded icing to use once it sets up again.
Any tips on transporting these? Love them x
You could try a cake board/box since they won’t fit in a traditional cupcake tray. Use a small dab of icing to attach them to the board so they don’t move around on you.
I’ve made decorated cakes/cupcakes using the grass tip and find that, sooner or later, the buttercream gets too soft from the warmth of my hands and then sort of gets melty when piped. Any suggestions for avoiding this? I’ve tried putting it back in fridge in piping bag to chill a bit, but then have issues with it clogging the tip. I’m dying to make these cutie cupcakes!!
Definitely after piping for awhile, your hand can heat up the icing inside the pastry bag and make it too soft to pipe nicely. When that happens to me, I empty out my pastry bag and refill with fresh icing, saving the discarded icing to use once it sets up again.
Working with smaller amounts of frosting in your piping bag will help as well. You’ll end up refilling your piping bag more often but you’ll use the frosting before it gets too soft.
Hope that helps some Bridget!
I can’t believe it , there are so cute , how you get this texture ? I can’t do it , but i’ll try again
Oh my goodness!!!!!! Awwwww – these are the cutest things ever! I don’t think I could eat one. They are so adorable that I would be more likely to name one than eat it! My son and my husband could eat one though and I would love to give it a try! Thanks so much!
These are the cutest cupcakes I’ve seen in a long time! Thinking I’ll have to make these for our Valentine’s Day party… 🙂
What food coloring measurements did you use to get your buttercream to these colors?
So I just got done at the cake decorating supplies store and to the piping tip that you listed here number 233 is actually wrong it’s number 234 according to the store and I bought it at fortunately I was paying attention but I figured I should let you know so nobody else in advertently gets the wrong tip
Hi Misty – Tip #234 and #233 are very similar. The only difference is the strands will be somewhat thicker with #234. They will be thinner and placed closer together with #233. I used #233 but either will work!