These Valentine's Day Cupcakes are an addictive combo of dark chocolate and spicy cinnamon heart candies. If you like cinnamon hearts you will LOVE these!
It's Throw Back Thursday time again, and this #tbt is just in time for Valentine's Day. I've been dreaming of these Valentine's Day cupcakes ever since I first posted them back on February 6th, 2012. They're moist, dark chocolate cupcakes infused with spicy cinnamon hearts flavour. Seriously, can you think of anything more delicious? Ya, me neither.
These #tbt posts have become some of my favourites here on TEM. It all started last summer when I was going through all my posts with my then new Grammarly app to correct some of the embarrassing, sleepy-eyed mistakes I had made.
What I found (grammar mistakes aside) were some awesome recipes, with really terrible pictures. These Throw Back Thursday posts are my way of sharing these recipes with you and letting us both have a little laugh at some of my first attempts at photography.
The original photos of these Valentine's Day cupcakes are definitely not the worst I've taken. They were one of the first photos I had accepted onto FoodGawker. I remember what a big deal that felt like, and how proud I was of myself!
Make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the post to see the original pics.
But first … make these dark chocolate and cinnamon hearts Valentine's Day cupcakes. Stat!
Original post date: February 6th, 2012
You know how some things just scream Valentine's Day? Like those Valentine cut-out cards that are exchanged by seven-year-olds in grade two. Do they still do that? Or heart shaped candies that say ‘Be mine' and ‘I heart you.' Seems they now also say 'email me' which makes me laugh more than I think it should. Or fiery red cinnamon hearts that seem to have resisted any change since I was a child.
Mmm … cinnamon hearts. If Valentine's Day were a flavour, this is what it would taste like.
I'll never know why it took me so long to marry cinnamon hearts with dark chocolate. They really do deserve to be together. Forever. The dark chocolate holds its own without overpowering the cinnamon. And while the cinnamon hearts are certainly the most outspoken of the two, they manage to not take over the dark chocolate. If they were a real life couple, they'd make the perfect team.
These little guys had me proclaiming my love for them after the first bite. Whatever your plans are for Valentine's Day, please, please, please, include these dark chocolate and cinnamon hearts cupcakes in them.
If you make these Dark Chocolate and Cinnamon Hearts Cupcakes make sure you snap a pic and tag @theendlessmeal on Instagram so I can like and comment on your photos. I love seeing TEM recipes you create!
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons black cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons butter
- ⅓ cup semi-sweet chocolate, melted
- 6 tablespoons whipping cream
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg white
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 cups icing sugar
- ½ cup cinnamon hearts, ground in food processor
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon oil
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tin with paper or silicone liners.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and both cocoa powders
- In a large bowl beat together butter, cream, melted chocolate, cinnamon oil, egg and egg white
- Whisk flour mixture into wet ingredients until just smooth
- Pour batter into prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean
- With an electric mixer, cream together butter, icing sugar, ground cinnamon hearts and cinnamon oil
- Use a knife or a pastry bag to decorate the cupcakes. Add an extra (or many extra) cinnamon hearts on top
The Original Pictures
If you’re interested in learning a few tricks that I did to improve my food photography, check out the posts 10 Food Photography Tips for New Food Bloggers, The 10 Best Food Photography Props to Improve Your Food Photography and The Food Photography Equipment I Use.
Kristen Stevens
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Kristen is the person working behind the scenes at The Endless Meal. She takes all the pics, creates all the recipes and eats all the leftovers. 
These little hearts are super duper cute! Dark chocolate and cinnamon sounds so good together 🙂
Pinned, need to make these soonish!
Thank you! They really are super tasty. 🙂
I will take any excuse to eat chocolate (not that I needed one)… these cupcakes are so fun! Have a happy valentine’s day next week! <3
Any excuse is a good excuse! Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too!
look very beautiful, good cupcakes for valentine’s day
Thank you. 🙂
Ooh, the perfect way to say I love your dark, dark heart this V=Day! 😉
Oh hell ya it is!
I just love those little cinnamon heart candies! I will definitely have to try this recipe before valentine’s day 🙂
These look sooooo amazing!! I want to eat them right now……I guess I am off to buy some ingredents, Thanks so much for this idea
Love that my post has you running to the grocery store. Best compliment ever. Let me know how you like them!
Hi Sarah,
To be honest this was the first time that I used silicone liners to bake cupcakes too. I did have to bake them for a few minutes longer that the original recipe called for. It is hard to say if that was because I changed the recipe or my oven temp was a little off or if it was because of the silicone liners.
Btw: your lavender and lemon cupcakes look amazing!
These cupcakes are super cute. I just used my silicon cupcake liners for the first time this weekend – do you find the silicon liners bake the cupcakes differently or that you need to adjust the baking time a bit?