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. 
What a delicious entry and thank you for submitting it to this month’s Tasty Tools!
yum – these look so good!
i often write posts well after the recipe has been made and photographed, especially if there’s no recognizable feature (like a holiday).
woah! these look fantastic!!! Jen, are you EVER moving to Indy? We need to move in next door to each other. We’ll help you ‘take care of’ all of your experiments. 🙂
Ha Amy – I doubt we’d ever end up in Indy… Cincy is about as close as we’ll get… Or you guys can move to Boston 😉
They look amazing! Great job!
What a great idea – two tastey desserts in one! I like Amy’s idea too. At least if you live in Cincy we could get a carrier pigeon or something…
Or we just need a carrier pigeon who can handle the distance from Boston.
This looks great! My husband’s favorite dessert is also creme brulee 🙂
Oh my heavens! That looks so good!
I really like the way you frosted these – gives me ideas. Here’s a creme brulee recipe for anyone interested in trying – it’s really easy – but you’re right – doesn’t travel. Happy baking.
Thanks for sharing mouth watering I love Creme Brulee. So good.
Yum those sound & look DELISH! Thanks for sharing the recipe & tip on another way to frost my cupcakes. 🙂
~ingrid
These look amazing!
Super cute way to ice the cupcakes! Creme Brulee is my favourite dessert, I think these need to be added to my list of must makes!
I like your blogging strategy – I tend to be the exact same way! Sometimes I get so backlogged and other times, I’ll have 10 posts sitting as drafts.
These cupcakes look so good – a nice twist on a traditional frosted cupcakes. I would have never thought to do this.
Wow – what a fabulous recipe! They must be delicious!
I made these last year and they were SO GOOD! I love creme brulee.
I’d like to try making these for a coworker’s birthday, but I have 2 questions. First, is there anyway to toast the top if I don’t have a torch? Second, how far in advance could I make all or any of the components? Thanks!
Xiaolu – Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. I was on vacation. I don’t know if you could torch them without a torch… I know for creme brulee you can use a broiler, but it doesn’t work so well. I wouldn’t make these too far in advance. We noticed the cupcakes going stale within a day or two.
Hi again, Jen! I didn’t end up making these until tonight. They taste good, but this was my first time making SMBC and I think I did something wrong. It’s funny, my buttercream never broke/curdled when I added the butter and I heard slapping noises almost immediately. But it was too soft to pipe, so I chilled it then rewhipped. Unfortunately, the SMBC softened again pretty quickly and also started looking a little curdled. Do you have any idea what I might’ve done wrong? Could the meringue have been too warm still when I added the butter? Thanks again!
Xiaolu
Xiaolu – Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I’m no expert on SMBC, but your butter may have been too soft. It should be just at room temp. I would definitely check out this tutorial on SMBC. I found it very helpful when I was first starting to make SMBC.
I’ve made these cupcakes, and they are amazing, but when I use my creme brulee torch to carmelize the sugar, the frosting melted and slid off the cupcake. To get around this, I carmelized the brown sugar on a piece of tinfoil and then placed the pieces on top of the frosting. I tried using a smaller flame, holding the torch further away from the cupcake, and even froze the cupcake with the frosting for a little bit, but nothing would stop the frosting from melting off. Am I doing something wrong?
Tonya, It’s been a while since I made these, but I do remember that the first one I did, the frosting melted off. After that I had Hubby do the torching and he just kept the flame further away from the frosting. We also let the set before moving them once they had been torched. Sorry that you’re having so much trouble with the recipe. But it sounds like you may have found a solution.
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