Watermelon cupcakes
I saw these Watermelon cupcakes in my Google Reader and I thought they were so cute. Like the perfect summery treat. We were going to a cookout last weekend and I immediately thought of these cupcakes. I wanted to be able to pipe the frosting, so I opted not to flavor them with watermelon. I also didn’t think chocolate and watermelon really go together… So I guess mine are just watermelon look-alike cupcakes.
I made the same chocolate chip cupcakes that I made for the 4th of July, but this time I used mini chips and added some pink and red food coloring to the batter. For the frosting, I made my favorite buttercream. I actually made two shades of green that I wanted to swirl together. The swirling didn’t go as planned, so really all you can see is dark green frosting, not the lighter lime green frosting. Everyone enjoyed the summery (looking) cupcakes. 
Chocolate Chip cupcakes – adapted from Vanilla cupcakes from Crazy Delicious – original recipe from Martha Stewart – makes 24
1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips + 1 Tbsp flour (toss to coat chocolate chips)
Few drops pink and red food coloring
Mix the dry ingredients
Add butter
Whisk eggs, milk and vanilla
Add wet ingredients 1/3 at a time to the dry ingredients
Stir in food coloring and chocolate chips – be sure to coat the chips with flour so they don’t all sink to the bottom while baking
Bake for 17-22 minutes at 325 degrees or until a toothpick comes out clean
Vanilla and Buttercream
2 sticks butter
7 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk – I used whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Few drops green and yellow food coloring
Beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl
Add 5 cups of sifted powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla, beat until combined. Add food coloring until desired color is reached.
Add more powdered sugar until you get to the consistency you want (not too stiff so that its hard to pipe)
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. 
I love freezing dough but somehow most ends up in my tummy unbaked when I do that 🙂
What a great gift! I’m thinking that would be wonderful for all sorts of occasions. Thanks for the idea!
These are adorable and I love that idea! Two questions, though: 1) Were these as good as the cookies from the other recipes? and 2) When you freeze them, do you bake right from frozen?
Great questions Carly – As far as comparing them to the other cookies. I enjoyed the chocolate M&M cookies the best, but they were REALLY chocolatey. The other non-chocolate M&M cookies were a bit more chewy and they had nuts in them, so they had a different vibe. This recipe was more of a classic M&M cookie for sure.
As far as baking from frozen, you can def just go straight from freezer to oven. Bake them ~13 minutes instead of ~11 and take them out when they look done.
these were delicious!
they look so cute all frozen up 🙂
I love the pink and red M&Ms. Thanks for the idea of freezing the cookie dough.
I was going to ask you the same thing as Carly, well the first question. These cookies are cute. Your freezing method reminded me that I have a bunch of sugar cookies still in the freezer! Do you know how long cookies can stay in the freezer?
I don’t know how long they will last in the freezer. I have a tendency to forget about things in my freezer… I’d guess a couple months? Anyone have ideas?
What festive little cookies 🙂 I love them! I also like the fact that you froze them. I bet they were delicious. Make sure to enter the All Through the Year Cheer event for Valentine’s Day 🙂
I think that sounds like a great way to spend valentine’s day. It can be intimidating the way it’s so hyped up. The cookies look very festive, love ’em!
We don’t do “valentine’s day” either since my MIL was born on the 14th and daughter’s birthday is the 15th – besides, its more important to say you love someone everyday, not just one day out of the year. Love the idea about freezing the cookie dough in preshaped form and giving that away. Wonderful idea!
I am looking for cookies that travel well for my soldier adopted through Soldier’s Angels and these look like a winner!!
Mmm, these were so tasty! Happy Valentine’s Day!
These are just too cute!! I love M&M cookies too!!
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Just had to add my two cents on the idea of giving cookie dough frozen and ready to be baked – genius! For some reason, I’ve never thought of that, even though I’ve given cookies frozen to people to be defrosted when they’re ready to eat. I love the dough idea!
YUM-these look absolutely delicious! I love the pink and red M&Ms!