These Conversation Cupcakes are rich yet light, cake filled with fluffy marshmallow cream. They are dipped in a silky smooth ganache frosting and decorated with my favorite fun Valentine’s Day sayings.
(This post is sponsored by ALDI. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that keep A Cozy Kitchen cozy.)
This post is sponsored by ALDI, my favorite grocery store to buy and stock up on all baking ingredients. Everything at ALDI is super affordable and the quality is amazing. For this recipe, I headed to ALDI to buy flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, sugar, organic coffee, organic butter—basically everything for this recipe.
If you like, you can order all of these ingredients from Instacart and have them delivered to you!
How to Make Conversation Cupcakes
- There are a few components to these cupcakes. Mix the marshmallow crème with a few tablespoons of unsalted butter. This just helped with giving it a smoother consistency that made it easier to pipe in each of the cupcakes. Here’s how to make them:
- Mix the dry ingredients together. We have all-purpose flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Brew some coffee. I used this Barissimo Fair Trade Certified Organic Honduran Coffee from ALDI. It was rich and delicious and helped bring out some of the chocolate flavor in these cupcakes.
- Whisk the coffee with sour cream and when it’s smooth, you crack in the eggs, pour in the olive oil or avocado oil and vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until combined.
- Fill up each cupcake liner about 1/2 way and bake! Repeat until you have about 36 cupcakes.
- Make the filling. Mix together the marshmallow cream and softened butter until smooth.
- Carve out a small hole in the tops of each cupcake. This helps give the filling a place to go!
Make Ganache Frosting!
- Make the ganache by warming up the heavy cream and butter. And then pour it over the chopped chocolate and whisk until smooth. This is my favorite way to make ganache.
- Add a tablespoon of ganache to each cupcake. And then smooth it out until an even layer exists on the surface of each cupcake.
Decorate Conversation Cupcakes
- Let it set! I like to make the frosting for the writing at this time. It’s super easy: just powdered sugar and butter.
- Figure out what you want to say on each cupcake. I am TERRIBLE at writing with frosting. (I found this out during the process lol.) So make it easy on yourself. I did short sayings. These don’t have to be perfect. And when they’re all clustered together they look much better than on their own.
- I chose the following: “BFF” “AMOR” “XOXO” “TXT ME” “HI” “<3” “BAE”
- That’s it! Are these a bit of a labor of love? I think so, but they are rich while the crumb of the cupcake is light and fluffy. These would be perfect for a Valentine’s Day party or get together.

Conversation Cupcakes Valentine's Day Recipe
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 2 1/4 cup Baker’s Corner All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Baker’s Corner Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Baker’s Corner Granulated Sugar
- 1 cup Baker’s Corner Cocoa Powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 cup Barissimo Fair Trade Certified Organic Honduran hot coffee
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3 large Simply Nature Grade A Organic Brown Eggs
- 3 tablespoons Specially Selected Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 teaspoons Stonemill vanilla extract
Filling:
- 1 (7-ounce) container of marshmallow fluff
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , at room temperature
Frosting for Writing:
- 1/2 cup Baker’s Corner Powdered Sugar
- 1/4 cup Countryside Creamery Unsalted Butter
Ganache Frosting:
- 4 ounces Moser Roth Dark Chocolate , finely chopped
- 4 ounces Moser Roth Milk Chocolate , finely chopped
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Pinch of kosher salt
Instructions
To Make the Cupcakes:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place 12 cupcakes liners into the cavities of a cupcake tin.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix until combined.
- In a measuring cup, measure out the coffee. Whisk in the sour cream until smooth. Next, crack in the eggs, pour in the olive oil and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
- Fill each of the cupcake liners about 1/2 way. Transfer to the oven to bake for about 15 to 18 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack and cool until room temperature before frosting.
- Repeat with the remaining cupcake batter. I got 36 cupcakes with this amount.
To Make the Frosting for Writing:
- In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar and kosher salt; beat until smooth and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
To Make the Filling and Fill:
- Mix together the marshmallow crème and butter until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag with a small circular piping tip attached.
- Using a paring knife, make a circular hole in the tops of the cupcakes, removing out a bit of cake. This will make room in the cupcakes for the filling.
- Insert the piping tip into the cupcake and squeeze, filling up the cupcakes until the marshmallow crème reaches the top of the cupcake. Using a butter knife or offset spatula, make the marshmallow smooth to make a nice even surface.
To Make the Ganache Frosting:
- In a small bowl, add the chopped chocolate. To a small saucepan, set over medium heat, add the heavy cream, butter and a pinch of salt. Warm until it reaches a gentle simmer. Give it a stir to combine the butter into the cream, and then pour it over the chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken.
To Assemble the Cupcakes:
- Add a tablespoon of ganache to the top of the cupcake and smooth it around with the back of a spoon until it looks like a nice even layer. Do the best you can—it doesn’t have to be perfect. I tried this with an offset spatula, but found that the back of a spoon was the easiest. Allow to set for 10 minutes.
- Write whatever you like on the cupcakes. I used these phrases: “BFF, TXT ME, AMOR, Hi, XO, BAE.” But really write what you like. Or don’t, if you don’t want to write phrases on top—no biggie. These are delicious.
Notes
- You can make these cupcakes up to 2 days ahead. Allow to cool to room temperature and then place in a sealed plastic bag or container. Keep in the fridge until you're ready to serve.
- Make the ganache frosting up to a day ahead and keep in the fridge. Warm in a microwave in 30 second intervals until you can stir it smooth.
Equipment
Nutrition
If you end up making this, let me know on Instagram. And a step-by-step of decorating these cupcakes are going to be in my IG Highlights!
Hello!
The nutrition information says it is 35 calories per cupcake, but that doesn’t sound right. Is it?
Thank you so much,
Sophia
delicious! made these for my housemates and they called them “divine” and said they “tasted like REAL chocolate”. wish it had made a little extra ganache frosting, but maybe i’m just greedy 😉 i’ll be making these again for sure, thanks for the recipe!! <3
love hearing this! 🙂