Hot Tamale Heart Cupcakes

If you're looking for a simple way to decorate your Valentine's Day cupcakes, these Hot Tamale toppers are easy to make.

My husband's favorite candy is Hot Tamales. The rest of the family doesn't care for them much, so it's one of the few treats that doesn't get devoured while he's at work. For his birthday, we decided to make him some Hot Tamale cupcakes. The frosting has only a mild cinnamon flavor, so the rest of the family was willing to eat them as well.

I baked some basic cupcakes and frosted them with my favorite buttercream frosting. I substituted half the vanilla extract for cinnamon extract.

For the top, I cut two Hot Tamales an at angle and pressed them together to form a heart.

Then we decorated. Some of us were more generous with the sprinkles than others.

Mine:

My five year old's:

My four year old's:

The excessive use of sprinkles shouldn't have come as a surprise considering how they decorated their cotton ball cupcakes.