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These Pink Lemonade Cupcakes have been swirling around in my brain for the past few weeks. A bridal shower for a young friend gave me the perfect occasion to put my ideas together ………….. everyone seemed to love the results!
I used my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe, adapted from Cook's Illustrated. The fine folks at Cook's Illustrated call this recipe The Perfect Cupcake. That's quite impressive, coming from them as they test, tweak and review a zillion recipes before describing something as "perfect".
The amazing thing is that it's also the easiest cake recipe I've EVER made! How cool is that? Instead of the classic creaming of the butter and sugar and alternating the wet and dry ingredients into the batter as you continue to mix, this recipe calls for throwing everything into the mixer bowl, pushing the "go" knob and mixing for less than a minute! Crazy huh? It may sound crazy but IT WORKS! Every time! Soft, fluffy, delicious cupcakes in no time flat! I love it, don't you?
The icing is my own concoction. I love a smooth, creamy icing and usually add a bit of cream cheese for delicious flavor and dreamy piping. Pink lemonade adds delicious, fresh, fun flavor and a garnish of thinly sliced lemon and a tiny sprig of mint makes a dessert worthy of any special occasion ………….. or just to tell someone they're special!
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Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
Ingredients
- For cupcakes:
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- ½ cup buttermilk or sour cream, room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- For the buttercream:
- 1 ½ sticks butter, at room temperature
- 3 ounces cream cheese, I use the low fat, not no-fat at room temperature
- 6 tablespoons pink lemonade concentrate, from frozen concentrate
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 cups powdered sugar
- milk or half and half, as needed
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin/cupcake tins with paper or foil liners.
- Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add butter, buttermilk (or sour cream), eggs, and vanilla; beat at medium speed until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix by hand until smooth and no flour pockets remain.
- Divide batter evenly among cups of prepared tin. Bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from tin and transfer to wire rack; cool cupcakes to room temperature before frosting.
- For buttercream, place butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl once or twice.
- Reduce the speed to low and add the pink lemonade concentrate, vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat on lowest speed until all of the powdered sugar is incorporated, then increase to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 3-4 more minutes, scraping the bowl as needed. If the icing is too thick add a bit of milk or half and half, if too thin add a bit more powdered sugar (see note below).
Notes
~ For these swirled cupcakes, I used a Wilton 1M tip.
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Wow, these just scream spring! Love it. Going to go check them out!
These cupcakes look soooo pretty! Love it!
Besides being a very pretty cupcake, these are truly delicious. I made them today to celebrate the fact that it was a Monday and we didn't get snow! Thanks for a sweet recipe.
You are an absolute artist Chris! Your frosting is always perfect, the colors amazing and the photos fantastic. Love your blog!
The prettiest cupcakes I've seen in ages. I've been thinking of them since I saw them the other day on FB. So lovely for Lizzy!
So pretty! Love Liz, glad to see you over there!
Chris, I saw these the other day, and just couldn't stop staring at the adorable pictures. You're so clever, taking a humdrum dessert like cupcakes and making them into something truly lovely and company-worthy. You really have a gift!
These are sooo pretty! Love the cupcake liners with the frosting. 🙂
Those are stunning cupcakes! My daughter is planning a first birthday party for her daughter in June and the theme is cupcakes and pink lemonade. I'm definitely going to point her this way.
I am definitely hoppin' on over there. I just made some lemon bars but wish I had seen this recipe first. These are spectacular!
these look beautiful and perfect!!
These look so good. I think I will make them just because. I don't want to wait for a special occasion 🙂
these are so lovely!
These look to pretty to eat... but I would!
Absolutely gorgeous, Chris! Liz sure had a stunning guest post from you!!!
These look so good and with lemon......
These are some of the prettiest cupcakes I have seen! Jumping over to Liz's blog for the recipe!
Those would be just perfect for a shower - they'd make a wonderful, edible centrepiece.
Those are so pretty and would be perfect for Mother's Day!
These cupcakes look like some of the desserts that the pastry students made at the Cordon Bleu school in Paris, when I studied there! They used to place all their baked goodies on a table where all the students could walk by and grab things off the table. Yum!
Oh my goodness Chris they are just beautiful. I'm going to send them on to my friend with the twins. It's their first Birthday this week!
These are awesome! I have seen several on Pinterest, but none are this pretty!
I think these will be perfect for my daughter's birthday. They look beautiful and tasty.
Chris, these cupcakes literally brightened up my Monday! They're beautiful, and so happy-looking. 😀
Wow these are uber cute! And a great flavor too.
These are sooo perfect!!! Lovely little cups!!! So cute!! They are the exact same color as the frosting!
These are sooo perfect!!! Lovely little cups!!! So cute!! They are the exact same color as the frosting!
These are adorable cupcakes! And I know they taste as good as they look 🙂
All pink and lemony, what's not to love!
WONDERFUL work, Chris!! A very big hug from Spain!!
These cupcakes are so cute!!! And I love the idea of pink lemonade in a cupcake. Lovely post...
These look so summery and stunning!
Such beautiful cupcakes! That bride-to-be is very lucky to have tasted one of your scrumptious creations. Can you FedEx one to me, hehehe!
these are the most beautiful cupcakes!! I'm hopping over now - wow these are gorgeous!!
Mary x
These are so beautiful!
Absolutely stunning!!!! So pretty in pink!
These beauties are screaming "Spring"! Love the holders also, headed over to check out the recipe.
I pinned those, what an awesome share!
So pretty, Chris! I love the way you decorated them and those striped liners are adorable!
Thanks SO much for sharing your amazing cupcakes on my blog today!!! They are stunning...and I'm sure my kids will be demanding that I make my own batch. I may need a frosting intervention from you first...yours are iced to perfection 🙂 xo
Yum Chris! What beautiful cupcakes! I'm heading over to Liz's blog to check it out!!
What gorgeous and fun cupcakes, Chris! Great job as always...