Swirled Chocolate Heart Valentine’s Day Cupcakes

Make easy swirled chocolate bark out of your favorite candy melt colors, then cut out heart shapes to make cute & easy Valentine’s Day cupcake toppers.

🧁 Candy Melt Cupcake Toppers for Valentine’s Day

These Valentine’s Day cupcakes, topped with swirled chocolate heart toppers, will win YOUR heart–and your stomach! All you need are a few colors of candy melts and some small cookie cutters to make these eye-catching hearts. You can use them as cupcake toppers, decorate a full cake with them, or even package them individually as cute valentines for kids!

If you’re looking for more Valentine’s Day Cupcake ideas, don’t miss my Sprinkle Heart Cupcakes, Fondant Rose Cupcakes, or Chocolate Rose Cupcakes.

🧾 What You’ll Need

Components

You can use practically any cupcake and frosting recipe you’d like as the base of these cupcakes. Here are my top recommendations, but if you have a tried and true recipe you love, chances are it’ll work too. Just pick a cupcake and a frosting flavor, and get ready to swirl!

Cupcake Recipes to Try

• Chocolate cupcakes
• Red velvet cupcakes
• Spice cupcakes
• Strawberry cupcakes
• Pineapple cupcakes
• Lemon cupcakes

Frosting Recipes to Try

• Easy Vanilla Buttercream
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• Chocolate Buttercream
• Strawberry Buttercream

Storebought vs Homemade

Looking for shortcuts? You can definitely use a cake mix to make cupcakes, or even buy baked cupcakes to decorate. You can also use store-bought canned frosting — just be aware that this kind of frosting doesn’t pipe well, so you’ll want to do a small spatula swirl on top of the cupcakes instead of a tall piped swirl.

Equipment

Here’s everything you need to decorate these cute cupcakes!
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• Heart cupcake wrappers (these are grease proof!)
• Heart cookie cutter set
• Red candy melts
• Bright pink candy melts
• Light pink candy melts
• Piping bag
• Large star tip
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Mini spatula

📋 Instructions

How to Make Swirled Candy Melt Bark

Since the star of the show is the candy melt cupcake toppers, this tutorial will focus on how to get those perfect swirled hearts.

Step 1: Melt the different colors of candy melts in individual bowls in the microwave. For these hearts, I used red, bright pink, and light pink colors.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper, and spread one color out in a rough oval shape as the base color. Use a spoon to drizzle the other two colors on top of the first.

Step 2: Take a bread knife or mini spatula, and swirl it through the candy melts before the candy starts to set up. Avoid over-swirling, or the colors might become muddy and indistinct.

Let the candy bark partially set at room temperature, but stay close by and watch the tray carefully. You want the candy to be firm enough that you can touch it without smearing it, but still pliable enough to be easily cut. Depending on room conditions and temperature, this will probably be in the 5-10 minute range.

Step 3: Take a small heart-shaped cookie cutter and press firmly through the swirled candy melt bark. If you have timed it right, you should be able to easily cut through the candy. TIP: the candy melts will start setting from the outside edges in, so cut your first hearts out around the edges, then move into the center when it feels firm enough to cut.

Step 4: Once all the hearts are cut out, let the bark set completely–this can be at room temperature or in the refrigerator. When it’s firm, carefully pop the hearts out and set them aside while you frost the cupcakes.

Step 5: Pipe generous swirls of buttercream on your baked and cooled cupcakes. I’m using my Easy Swiss Meringue Buttercream here, piped with Ateco #846 large star tip.

Step 6: If desired, you can press jimmies or nonpareil sprinkles along the base of the frosting for an extra festive flair. Finally, add a few chocolate hearts and you’re done!

❤️ More Heart-y Desserts

• Watercolor Rose Sugar Cookies
• Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
• Pink and Red Heart-Topped Cake
• Trendy Cream Tarts
• Truffle-Topped Heart Cake

Sprinkle Heart Cupcakes

Sprinkle Heart Cupcakes are the perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, or any special occasion. Use this easy cupcake decorating hack to make cute, customized, sprinkle-covered cupcakes in no time!

View Recipe

Fondant Rose Cupcakes

Learn to make fondant ribbon roses, the sweetest little flowers that are super easy and fast to make. They can be used to decorate cupcakes or cakes, and can be made in whatever size and color you’d like. These easy fondant flowers add the perfect romantic touch to any dessert.

View Recipe

Don’t miss the step-by-step tutorial showing how to make Swirled Heart Cupcakes – check out the web story here!

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Swirled Chocolate Heart Cupcakes

Author Elizabeth LaBau

5 from 4 votes

These Valentine’s Day cupcakes, topped with swirled chocolate heart toppers, will win YOUR heart! Make easy swirled chocolate bark out of your favorite candy melt colors, then cut out heart shapes to make cute & easy cupcake toppers.

Prep1 hour hr

Total1 hour hr

Yields24 cupcakes

Equipment

• Red candy melts
• Bright pink candy melts
• Light pink candy melts

Ingredients

1x2x3x

• ▢ 6 oz red candy coating melts, (1 cup)
• ▢ 12 oz bright pink candy coating melts, (2 cups)
• ▢ 12 oz light pink candy coating melts, (2 cups)
• ▢ 24 cupcakes, baked and cooled
• ▢ 8 cups Frosting of your choice, (about 8 cups for 24 generously frosted cupcakes)
• ▢ 1 cup jimmies, or other sprinkles of your choice
• ▢ Piping bags
• ▢ Star pastry tip
• ▢ Heart-shaped cookie cutter

Instructions 

• Place each candy melt color into its own bowl. Microwave the candy melts, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth.
• Cover a baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper, and spread one color out in a rough oval shape as the base color. Use a spoon to drizzle the other two colors on top of the first.
• Take a bread knife or mini spatula, and swirl it through the candy melts before the candy starts to set up. (Avoid over-swirling, or the colors might become muddy and indistinct.)
• Let the candy bark partially set at room temperature, but keep a close eye on it as it sets. You want the candy to be firm enough that you can touch it without smearing, but pliable enough to be easily cut. Depending on room conditions and temperature, this will probably be in the 5-10 minute range.
• Take a small heart-shaped cookie cutter and press firmly through the swirled candy melt bark. The candy melts will start setting from the outside edges in, so cut your first hearts out around the edges, then move into the center when it feels firm enough to cut.
• Once all the hearts are cut out, let the bark set completely–this can be at room temperature or in the refrigerator. When it’s firm, carefully pop the hearts out and set them aside while you frost the cupcakes.
• Fit a piping bag with a large star tip, and fill it with frosting. Pipe a generous swirl on top of each cupcake.
• Hold a cupcake over a bowl of pink and red jimmies. Pick up a small handful, and gently press the sprinkles into the bottom of the cupcake’s frosting, creating about a ½-inch sprinkle border around the base.
• Press a few chocolate hearts into the top of the frosting. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes, until all of them are decorated.

Video

Recipe Notes

If you find yourself with leftover melted candy after making the bark, pour the candy out onto a piece of waxed paper and let it set completely. Once set, wrap it well and keep it for the next time you need candy melts!

Measuring Tips

Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.

Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?

Learn More

Tried this recipe?Snap a pic and hashtag it #SugarHero. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @elabau.

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What You'll Need

Scalloped Heart Cookie CuttersBuy nowRed Candy Coating MeltsBuy nowPink Candy Coating MeltsBuy nowBright Pink Candy Coating MeltsBuy now