Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I think this recipe has been on my “to try” list for about 3 years now.  I meant to make them for my end of grad school party last week but ran out of time and just served chocolate raspberry brownies.  Then I considered making them for mother’s day brunch but made lemon poppyseed muffins instead (with lemon raspberry jam inside, so delish!)  Finally I had friends over last night and whipped up these cupcakes for the occasion.  I just used store bought vanilla frosting that I tinted pink w/food coloring, next time I will try from scratch frosting with a lemon twist!   These were great, I did like how the vanilla frosting balanced out the tart cupcake.  I got about 24 cupcakes from this recipe. 

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes (from Confections of a Foodie Bride)

Ingredients:
1 1/8 cup (9 oz) frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate, thawed*
Boxed white cake mix
3 egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Non-stick spray
frosting of your choice, from scratch or store bought!
red food coloring

* For a less tart cupcake  try reducing the amount of pink lemonade. 3/8 cup water and 3/4 cup pink lemonade will cut the tartness.

Directions:
In a stand mixer, add the cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, and the pink lemonade concentrate. Mix on low for about 30 seconds and then increase to medium speed for 90 seconds (the batter will still be a bit lumpy; take care not to overmix so you don’t end up with dry cupcakes).  note: I discovered that my first batch didn’t come out very pink, so I added 2-3 drops of red food coloring to the batter for the second batch and they came out much pinker! 

Spray each cupcake liner with the non-stick spray and spoon the batter into a prepared muffin pan (fill the cups between 2/3 and 3/4 full). Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick registers “done” in the center cupcake. Remove the pan from the oven and cool 5 minutes. Remove the cupcakes and cool completely on a baking rack.

Once the cupcakes have cooled you can ice the cupcakes.

For the lemon-buttercream icing recipe check out Shawnda’s original post here.

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