It’s Valentine’s Eve, and I was so happy I found a little time to make these. After coming up with my Sweet Tart Martini last week, I’ve been wanting to create that same flavor in cupcake form. If I had to live the rest of my life eating only cupcakes and drinking martinis, I would die a happy person!

I did the unthinkable this week, I purchased those chalky candy hearts from Walmart. It went completely against my instinct. They did not have the sweet heart tarts, the ones I’m in the 10-step program for, so I picked up 2 bags, purely to use as garnish (since I knew they weren’t going to taste good). My son asked to try one and after biting into one said, “You know what these taste like Mom… TUMS!” – from the mouths of babes. I really just wanted the cute words on them to put atop these sweet-tart cupcakes. Okay, that’s when I really got upset, on 95% of them, the wording was off-set, completely smeared, or unable to read. Don’t they have quality control before those bags are sealed? Isn’t the point of a conversation heart, to have a little conversation going on? Anyway, I picked through the bags to find the ones that looked usable, and I’ll admit I actually liked some of the sayings, “Tweet Me”, “You Rock” – so hip! The moral of the story is go with your instinct. Don’t settle for chalky, tum-like hearts on Valentine’s Day!

Thank goodness I went with my instinct on these mini cupcakes. The flavor ended up being exactly what I was going for. Last summer I made pink lemonade cupcakes and they were a hit. I really could have just made a batch of those because they, too, have a great sweet to tart ratio, but I thought I’d try to come up with a super quick version by starting with a white cake mix. To make them tart, I grabbed pink lemonade concentrate from the freezer and cranberry juice from the fridge. I was a little conservative on the cranberry juice and pink lemonade concentrate when I added it to the batter. I didn’t want it to be too over-powering. I could have added a little more of each and less water, so feel free to play with the liquid ratios. Sometimes subtle is good though. This has just enough of a kick for guests to wonder what you what you put in it. I made a lemon cream cheese frosting for these by tweaking a very basic cream cheese frosting recipe. I added more of the lemonade concentrate, a teaspoon of lemon zest, and a few squeezes of a fresh lemon. I planned on piping the frosting, but it was too liquid for that, and I didn’t want to ruin the flavor of the icing by adding a bunch more powdered sugar.  I divided the frosting into six cups and used gel coloring to achieve the same pastel colors of the conversation hearts. The result… the right amount of sweet and just enough tart. I love it when I get it right on the first try!

Hope your Valentine’s Day is all about the sweet!

Sweet Tart ~ Sweet Heart Cupcakes

White Cake Mix in the Box

3 eggs

1/3 cup canola oil

¼ cup pink lemonade concentrate, thawed

¼ cup all natural cranberry juice

¾ cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat ingredients in electric mixer on low, 30 seconds. Mix on high for two minutes. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake according to directions on the box.

Sweet Tart ~ Cream Cheese Lemon Frosting

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

4 tablespoons frozen lemon-ade concentrate, thawed

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (colored portion of peel)

Squeeze of lemon

Place cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, about 30 seconds. Add sugar, lemonade concentrate, squeeze of lemon, and zest. Beat on low speed until sugar is incorporated, about 1 minute, then beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.