Homemade buttercream frosting beats store-bought frosting any day. The process of making frosting from scratch only requires a few minutes of your time and is completely worth it!

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With Valentine’s Day in sight, I wanted to get a head start on some themed cooking and baking. Originally, I was planning on making strawberry macaroons, as I’ve never tasted or made the cookie. However, I was in a lazy mood and didn’t feel like baking something that would demand too much effort.

I decided to bake cupcakes instead, especially since I had some adorable new liners that I’d been craving to use. I chose a Martha Stewart recipe for raspberry cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting and lacy chocolate hearts—primarily because they looked absolutely adorable in the photo that accompanied the recipe. I was unsure about making the chocolate hearts because of the tedious process, but am so glad I took the time to make them.

I substituted a few ingredients in the recipe and the cakes turned out moist and delicious. The finely chopped raspberries in the batter were a pleasant surprise when biting into the cupcake.

I topped the cupcakes with my reliable and fool-proof recipe for sweet and smooth buttercream frosting. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any leftover berries, but next time I would definitely add fresh raspberries to the frosting to give the cupcakes a little extra zing.

Oh, and I got to use my brand new, gorgeous Kitchen Aid professional mixer—definitely a wise investment. :)

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