Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Dara and I are horrible at being consistent about blogging. We suck at this, we know.

My heart hasn’t been in the kitchen much lately, I have to say. This summer was a scorcher and the last place I really wanted to be was in the kitchen, cooking. And with Darin traveling as much as he does in the fall, I just don’t get into cooking a lot; he generally likes everything I make and usually I have at least one child making some sort of complaint otherwise. And complaints don’t usually motivate me.

What I’m really trying to say is I haven’t been cooking like I was last year and the year prior. And when you cook the same boring recipes, you don’t like to blog about them, ya know?

I’m hoping this will break my spell, but don’t hold me to it.

Today is my stepdaughter’s fifth birthday and, per our tradition, I decided to make her cupcakes. And we went with pink again this year (after chocolate in 2009 and strawberry in 2008). Last week my mom gave me a little recipe book that included a recipe for pink lemonade cupcakes, so that was on the menu for Emma Day Grace’s big day.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
Original recipe found in Cake Mix Magic (pilcookbooks.com)

1 pkg white cake mix
1 cup water
3 egg whites
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup thawed frozen pink lemonade concentrate, divided
2 T vegetable oil
5-8 drops red food coloring, divided
4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened (not melted)

Ready? Okay!
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and, like you don’t already know to do this, line 24 standard muffin cups with paper baking cups; spray with non-stick cooking spray for easy removal later. The recipe says its yield is 24 standard cupcakes, but I had just enough left over to make a dozen mini cupcakes, too. (Don’t know how that happened, but next time I would probably only make mini ones because these bad boys are tart.)

Beat cake mix, water, egg whites, 1/3 cup lemonade concentrate, oil and 4-6 drops of food coloring in a large bowl with electric mixer. Or, if you’re a loser like me and can’t find your beaters, use a whisk and a little elbow grease. Mine was the color of Pepto-Bismol because I squirted pink food coloring in absent-mindedly; I figured the 4-6 drops were red and since I was working with pink food coloring, I should overcompensate a little. Ahem.

Note: I looked up similar recipes online and ended up with about 3/4 cup of lemonade concentrate in my mix, which was way too much for a bunch of 4-5 year olds. My husband’s co-workers, however, were okay with it (and so was Emma, two of the other kids didn’t like it (even my lemonade lover!) and the fourth was just okay with them).

You should know what to do next, right? Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to dip the batter out of the bowl and fill your cute little princess liners.

… Into the oven for about 22 minutes. Marvel at how pink they really are, then close the door and let the oven do its job already (geez!).

While the oven works its inferno-like magic, it’s frosting time for us! If you’re like me, by now you have magically located the beaters you’ve been searching for since Thanksgiving and you rejoice. When the angels have finished singing, beat powdered sugar, butter and 1/4 cup lemonade concentrate in a bowl on medium speed until well blended. Add a couple of drops of food coloring (really, just a couple, learn from last time!).

Cupcakes still baking? Clean up your mess, yo. Unload and reload the dishwasher and wipe down the counters. It will be almost midnight before you finish these (these aren’t complicated, it’s just late).

Dishes done? Check. Cupcakes out of the oven and cooled? Check. Now it’s time to pretend you are cool with an imposter of a pastry bag. Carlo’s Bakery, watch out.

I trust you all know how to do this. My mom taught me this when I was younger. Don’t have a pastry bag? Me neither. Just grab a gallon sized plastic bag, use your rubber spatula to transfer your frosting into it, zip it closed and snip the end off (not too much!). Now you’re ready to pipe frosting onto these bad boys. After you set your camera up on a recipe box and put it in self-timer mode, I mean.

And this would be me piping frosting onto two dozen cupcakes with my ghetto fab pastry bag. In my March of Dimes shirt and my husband’s fleece Aeropostale sweats that are just about the best thing ever. PS – I am growing my hair out and it’s in its icky phase. Enough of Frumpy Echo, though. Back to the cupcakes …

I didn’t do too terribly for my first try, right? The cupcakes needed more time to cool, though, because the frosting melted a bit.

Um, yeah. Neon pink, but they taste just like pink lemonade. In cake. And I mean that in a not-too-shabby kind of way. Like I said, I overloaded on the concentrate because I was an idiot, but toned down it would have been really good.

Next step? Put your 50mm lens on your camera and take more photos. Duh. Because you, my friend, are the bomb.

Oh yes: for a five-year-old princess, you must add the Disney Princess crown cupcake flags and a sparkly 5 candle, found at Walmart.

Package part of the cupcakes in a carrier to take to school and the others for home. Or work, whatever.

Basically, you are wasting time waiting on the mini cupcakes. Because you forgot you turned the oven off after the big ones came out. Oops.

Oh, yum. They are done. Finally! Frost them and marvel over their cuteness. These could really, really work …

I think the birthday girl gives them a grin of approval! She actually had two this morning (shh!). Not sure how they went over at school since her mom picked her up today, but my husband and his co-workers certainly enjoyed them (or so they said).

I’m wondering if this would work with other juice flavors? Grape juice? Pomegranate? Apple (ooh, garnished with a small cinnamon apple, must try this!)? What do you think?

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