This Trick for Making Heart-Shaped Cupcakes Without a Special Pan Is Ingenious

While I’m not really into Valentine’s Day, I am very much into festive desserts (especially cupcakes). And if those desserts have to be heart-shaped this month, so be it.

I’m happily baking up a batch every chance I get, including at potlucks, my book club, and whenever I have friends over. But I’m I not buying any special use-once-a-year muffin tins. Instead I’m making the most of this ingenious hack for making heart-shaped cupcakes that I picked up just last year. All it takes is a little foil.

To make heart-shaped cupcakes, you just need to create a little indentation in the cupcake’s shape. The baker I learned this from recommended using a marble or a ceramic pie weight, but I didn’t have either of those things on hand. So, instead of buying yet another thing, I decided to experiment, and found what was (possibly) an even better solution: aluminum foil, which rolls easily into a ball that is exactly the size you need it to be.

You’ll start by tightly crumpling small pieces of foil, one for each cupcake, so they’ll give your cupcake a good indentation. The balls should be about the size of a marble and tightly packed so they don’t rise up towards the top of the muffin well. Place the cupcake liners in each well of the muffin tin. Then place one foil ball at the top of each well between the liner and the pan. This will make an indent in the top of the cupcake that resembles a heart. Spoon the batter into each liner, filling it no more than halfway. and bake the cupcakes according to the recipe instructions.

When they’re done, remove the heart-shaped treats and decorate the tops with your favorite icing!

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• Chocolate Beet Cupcakes with Sour Cream Ganache Frosting
• French 75 Cupcakes
• Vanilla Cupcakes with Very Basic Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Your turn: What’s your favorite thing to bake for Valentine’s Day? Tell us in the comments, below!