Make These Delicious Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

My kids love pink lemonade and ask for it any time we go out to eat at a restaurant or a picnic.  It’s just something about the sweet, tart flavor combined with such a fun and festive color that makes it a favorite drink in our family.  So when a friend of mine shared her homemade pink lemonade cupcake recipe with me, I knew it would be a big hit in our household! After all, who doesn’t love a delicious, homemade cupcake? So if you’d like to try whipping these up from scratch in your own kitchen, check out the recipe below!

(Recipe courtesy of Lissa Koffler)

Cake Ingredients:

  • 2 ½ cups cake flour (cake flour helps keep cupcakes from being too dense.)
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 2 ½ tsp. baking powder
  • 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • 4 eggs (room temperature)
  • ¾ cups frozen pink lemonade
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 tbsp. lemon extract
  • pink (rose) coloring gel (NOT food coloring)
  • zest of 1 lemon (optional)

Lemon Buttercream Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • 2 tbsp. heavy cream
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp. lemon extract
  • 3-4 cups sifted powdered sugar

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, lemonade, lemon extract and milk together (add zest if you like) With mixer on low speed, cut butter into small squares and add to dry ingredients a little at a time as you mix until everything is well blended (it will look like moistened crumbs). Make sure to scrape all sides and the bottom of the bowl. Slowly add the wet ingredients on medium speed. Half way through wet ingredients, scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Your batter will become thick and fluffy. Add remaining wet ingredients and beat on medium speed for about one minute. Finally, add drops of pink coloring gel to the batter to desired color. Pour into cupcake cups and bake for 19-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake center comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting: combine butter, cream, and extracts into a medium bowl, and mix as you add the powdered sugar.  Sugar should be added depending to the consistency you prefer of the icing (3 cups for thinner frosting, 4 cups for thicker frosting)

(Makes 36 - 48 small cupcakes depending how full you fill your cupcake cups)