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READY IN ABOUT 1¾ hrs

Sweetheart Cupcakes

Read Reviews (155)

"Instead of just plain white cupcakes, I took it a step further and made them special. You can change the colors for any holiday. Shades of green for St. Patrick's Day, pastel colors for Easter, red white and blue for the 4th of July. You get the picture." — Celeste

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Original recipe makes 2 dozen cupcakes Change Servings

1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 egg whites
8 drops red food coloring
2 drops raspberry candy oil

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Directions

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a standard muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.
Beat the cake mix, water, vegetable oil, and egg whites together on low speed for 30 seconds, then on medium for 2 minutes, until smooth. Fill cupcake liners 1/3 full with white batter; set aside.
Stir 4 drops of red food coloring into the remaining bowl of batter to make the batter pink, stir in the raspberry oil. Pour 1/3 of pink batter into a resealable plastic bag and set aside.
Mix more food coloring into the remaining bowl of pink batter until it is an orange/red color and pour the batter into a resealable plastic bag. Cut a corner off the bag, stick the open tip into the center of each cup of white batter and squeeze in about two tablespoons of red batter.
Cut the corner off the bag with the pink batter, stick the open tip into the center of the red batter and squeeze about 1 tablespoon pink batter into each cup.
Bake the layered cupcakes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Kitchen-Friendly View

PREP 20 mins
COOK 20 mins
READY IN 1 hr 40 mins

Footnotes

Cook's Note
Top cupcakes with your favorite frosting. I used Sturdy Whipped Cream Frosting from this site.

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Reviews More Reviews

Most Helpful Positive Review

Feb 12, 2010

Hi! I am the submitter of this (technique) recipe. I know using a box cake really isn't a recipe, but Allrecipes contacted me asking me to submitt this because of the requests they recieved. So with that said, I submitted this so everyone can use my technique and have fun. You can use a box cake or a cake from scratch. I used Wilton (No Taste) RED concentrated paste icing color, and added a few drops of raspberry candy oil to the pink batter for flavor. You can add any flavor candy oil or extract. Someone asked how to get the swirled look on the frosting. Here is how it's done: Paint a verticle stripe maybe 5" or so on the inside of a pastry bag, using a gel or paste tint. Starting at the tip end, you can paint one stripe, two stripes (side by side or one stripe on each side of the bag), or use different colors and paint a bunch of stripes. Just depends on the look you want. Then add your frosting, and swirl it on the cupcake. I hope that made sense. &hearts;

—Celeste

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Most Helpful Critical Review

Feb 05, 2010

These look wonderful. Unfortunately, they taste like you made plain white cake which is just what they are except food coloring has been added. won't make again.

—Dee

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202 Ratings

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Feb 10, 2010

These are so adorable. Just a note-- make sure you push the tip of the bag (with colored mix) down into the white batter so you get the effect of the picture. My first batch had more of a tri layered look instead of the centered colored look. Oops. :)

—Kea

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Feb 06, 2010

Awesome! I just finished making these as a trial run for Valentine's Day and they are *so* cute. I did use Wilton gel coloring in pink and red, as that's what I had on hand (just mixed in until I got the shades I was looking for). I can't wait to use this technique for other holidays. For those of you who want to achieve the colored stripes in your icing, simply paint a stripe about 5" long down each side of your piping bag with gel coloring. You can use one color or multiple colors, depending on the look you're going for. Carefully fill the bag with icing and start playing! Thanks so much for sharing, Celeste! &hearts;

—CookinBug

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Mar 01, 2010

these worked out great. i wanted to make 24 cupcakes but ran out of batter by about cupcake #12 so if you want a full batch make sure to use 2 packages of cake mix which will give you about 27 cupcakes in total.

—yoyomofo

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Mar 17, 2010

I made green for St. Patrick's Day and instead of using the 3rd tinted cake batter, I made mint chocolate ganache for the center of the cupcakes. FABULOUS!! Ganache: 13 ounces heavy cream, 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate and 6 ounces Andes Mint Chips. In a sauce pan bring your cream to a light boil. Then pour in the chocolate and start stirring immediately. Keep going until you have a smooth mixture. Turn off your burner and set aside to cool. Once room temp, use in place of the 3rd tinted cake mix. I used this and store bought white icing piped together for the icing. The overall presentation wasn't near as well done as it could have been, but they really were great tasting.

—LINGYV

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Feb 05, 2010

I had a similar idea for my baby annoncement but wasn't sure how to tackle it exactly. . . now I know! When I find out the gender of the "bun in my oven," I will use pink or blue batter in the cupcakes I plan to bring to my office that afternoon and will even drop some by my 4 yr old's daycare. This is a PERFECT way to announce it during an afternoon cupcake toast with my friends at work and for my daughter to share with her friends.

—missela

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Feb 05, 2010

I made these for my daughters class for her birthday. They were a HUGE hit. So fun when the kids discovered there was something different inside. I added cocoa to the extra batter instead of food coloring. So good!

—jennybaby72

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Nutrition

Calories
119 kcal
6%

Carbohydrates
16.6 g
5%

Cholesterol
0 mg
0%

Fat
5.3 g
8%

Fiber
0.2 g
< 1%

Protein
1.4 g
3%

Sodium
149 mg
6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Nutritional Information

Sweetheart Cupcakes

Serving Size: 1/24 of a recipe
Servings Per Recipe: 24
Amount Per Serving
** Calories: 119
** Calories from Fat: 48

% Daily Value *
** Total Fat 5.3g 8 %
** Saturated Fat 0.8g 4 %
** Cholesterol 0mg 0 %
** Sodium 149mg 6 %
** Potassium 32mg < 1 %
** Total Carbohydrates 16.6g 5 %
** Dietary Fiber 0.2g < 1 %
** Protein 1.4g 3 %
** Sugars 11.6g
** Vitamin A < 1 %
** Vitamin C < 1 %
** Calcium 5 %
** Iron 3 %
** Thiamin 5 %
** Niacin 4 %
** Vitamin B6 < 1 %
** Magnesium 1 %
** Folate 11 %

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
** Nutrient information is not available for all ingredients. Amount is based on available nutrient data.
(-) Information is not currently available for this nutrient. If you are following a medically restrictive diet, please consult your doctor or registered dietitian before preparing this recipe for personal consumption.