Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
Today is the last day of cupcake week. I hope you guys have enjoyed it as much as I have (be sure to enter in my cupcake giveaway by midnight Aug 28th). I wanted to make something light and summery and when I saw these in my Google Reader earlier this week, I knew they’d fit the bill. Pink lemonade is the perfect summertime beverage. It just doesn’t feel right to drink it any other time of year. And, they’re so darn cute with the pink frosting and pink cake.
For the frosting on these guys, I added an extra two Tbsp of the concentrate and also a couple Tbsp of milk to thin it out. Hubby thought these cupcakes were too sweet because of the frosting, but that’s so something he’d say. I loved them. I was eating the leftover frosting by just piping it onto my finger. It is very sweet, and very good. Although next time, I might use more milk and less of the concentrate to help Hubby’s lack of a sweet tooth!
I am also submitting these as my entry for Flavor of the Month on Bake at 350. This month, the flavor is Pucker Up! (lemon or lime)
Don’t forget to enter in my 2nd blogiversary giveaway by midnight on August 28th!
Check out my week of cupcakes here.
Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
Yield: 20 cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes
2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 egg whites
2/3 cup thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate
1/2 cup buttermilk
Pink food coloring
For the Frosting
3 cups + 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp pink lemonade concentrate
Milk to reach desired consistency
Pink food coloring
Directions:
For the Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin pan with liners. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until just smooth.
Add just enough food coloring to turn the batter a light shade of pink.
Scoop batter into liners (fill about three-fourths full). Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting (see below).
For the Frosting
Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, lemonade concentrate, and a few drops of food coloring to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined.
I wanted to clarify my comments above about the frosting being too sweet. I was silly and added 4 Tbsp of the pink lemonade concentrate to try to thin it out. Then I tasted it and was like what the heck and I doing! I should be adding milk to thin it out. So if you use the recipe as written with the 2 Tbsp, I don't think it will be too sweet. Just use milk to thin in instead of more concentrate like me!
Turn the speed to med-high until the buttercream is fluffy and uniformly pink. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.
Recipe from Sweet Cheeks
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
These sound soo good!!!
I haven’t conquered my fear of yeast yet, but these look like a yummy way to try to.
They look great!
These look like the most delicious thing I could ever eat.
Yeast is definitely become less and less scarey for me…
Steph – you should so whip these up. They’re not too hard and worth the effort!
OH MY GOODNESS WOW! This is seriously the BESST idea!! THey look sooooo good!!
I’m glad you’re starting to conquer your fear of yeast! Those cupcakes are so photogenic. I’m getting hungry just looking at them.
what a great idea! They look great!
OMG these look awesome! I need one right now:)
Awesome!
And I saw on Cake Wrecks that today is National Cupcake Day.
These look so cute!
oh my gosh! YUM! Hubby LOVES cinnamon rolls. I’ll have to make these for him. He’ll probably eat 1/2 of them in a sitting!
My step son would go ape shit over these!!
He loves carrot cake, but no nuts or raisins – and cinnamon is his favorite spice so I made a cinnamon cream cheese frosting that would go perfect with these!!
Thanks for the idea!
I got my jam in the mail today. thank you so much! They were super yummy. I’ll be posting about it in the next couple of days. Rhubarb is my favorite and the vanilla peach bourbon….GENIUS! I’m a follower now. Thanks again.
What a cool idea, they look fabulous – yum!
Adorable! Love cinnamon rolls and cupcakes… bet these are amazing… and add that cream cheese frosting…yum! I so need these the next time I actually have time to make breakfast! Great job!
These are perfect for the office since they are served in their own paper! Not to mention, they are so cute…
They are SUPER cute! Kudos to you on working out your yeast fears! 🙂
~ingrid
adorable! But not too cute not to eat 😉
Super cute and beautiful!
Oh wow, these look amazing! I love cinnamon rolls… mmm… Great idea to bake them in cupcake liners! 🙂
So glad you liked them!
Great idea! They look so cute and delicious!
What a wonderful alternative to those expensive “bake and give” paper baking molds. THanks for the idea. (found you thru taste spotting.)
fabulous!! i’m going to bookmark this one!
These are so gorgeous! You’ve given me a great idea to try out for the next batch of cinnamon rolls I’m whipping up! 🙂
those are ADORABLE!!
LOVE THEM!
They would be good for my kid’s teachers!
YUM! Can’t wait to try this recipe and the strawberry basil ones also! Beautiful!
These are so ridiculously adorable! I bet they taste amazing simply because they’re so cute.
these look and sound soooo good! I’ll definitely have to try them soon!
These are adorable! Can’t wait to try them out 🙂
Those look AMAZING. I’m definitely gonna try those tomorrow morning. They would go amazing with coffee for breakfast. 🙂
I don’t bake much, but I have some wonderful recipes on my website you should check out.
http://www.nowthatsgood.net
Thanks!
Try using real Cinnamon in your recipe and reduce on the sugar.
The Cinnamon that we buy in the US is actually Cassia.
Breakfast? How about, snacks – lunch – and dinner!
I totally made these from her website and looved them so much. They were so delicious and smelled so good.
Yep Pat, most of what we use in the US is Cassia. I thank Alton Brown for knowing that little fact. You can find really good cinnamon at spice stores like Penzeys.
It’s been twenty years since I’ve baked anything that didn’t come from a box. I had some time today and tried these rolls. Not bad!! They came out pretty and my husband is taking them to work tomorrow. Husband says these are really great.
Those are adorable!!! Such an amazing idea I’m making these for my Mommy christmas party! 🙂
Idea for the frosting, try melting it a bit and then dipping the rolls in it. We used to do this at the bakery I worked at really quick way to make them look really professional! I also like the rustic look but it’s a fun way to make your coworkers jealous of your skills!
Great tip Alexandra!
These were great – made them last night to serve for a brunch this morning. 15 seconds in the microwave was all they needed to go from good to amazing and gooey. This was also my first time using yeast and now feeling confident. Thanks!
they look so good. I am looking for a good recipe, but the yeast scares me. but I think I will it give it a try soon…