Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

First off, you should know lemon is one of my most favorite flavors... even more than chocolate...gasp! For my birthday this year my mom made my favorite cake: sunshine cake with lemon filling. I really wanted to make that lemon filling and put it in a cupcake. I was brainstorming different flavor combos (should I do plain lemon, blueberry lemon, strawberry lemon, lemonade, oh the choices...).

Jirik drinking pink lemonade at the park

I decided to combine my favorite flavor with my favorite season: SUMMER. I love summer. Warm weather, less work (perks of being a teacher), and lots of fun times with my husband. I miss it. So tonight I made a summertime-inspired treat, even though we are in the dead of winter. Pink lemonade cupcakes. . . oh yes! My husband and I also tend to have some good laughs over pink lemonade because I used to tell him about the park in my town that had pink lemonade fountains instead of water fountains. He used to think I was living in some kind of imaginary dream world until he came to visit me one summer and experienced all the awesomeness for himself. Anyways... back to the cupcakes...

For my cupcakes I made a pink lemonade batter, lemon filling, and pink lemonade whipped topping.

PINK LEMONADE CUPCAKES

I used a recipe I found here. This makes 12 cupcakes. It has a pink lemonade flavor, but it wasn't as strong as I would have liked it. Next time I think I'll add more pink lemonade concentrate.

Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

Pinch salt

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 egg whites (set the yolks aside, you will need them later for the lemon filling)

1/3 c. thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate

1/4 c. buttermilk

2 or more drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 F. 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.

LEMON FILLING

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 beaten egg yolks
1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. butter

In a small saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in water. Stir in egg yolks, lemon peel, and juice. Cook and stir over medium heat until bubbly. Cook for 2 minutes more. Stir in butter until melted. Cover surface with clear plastic wrap; cool.

PINK LEMONADE WHIPPED TOPPING

I kinda just made this one up as I went along. I used my stand mixer to combine 2 cups heavy whipping cream, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, a drop of lemon extract, and pink lemonade concentrate to taste (I kept adding more because I really like it tart, but I probably overdid it a tad, haha). I also added a few drops of pink food coloring to make it look pretty :-)

ASSEMBLY

Once the cupcakes are cooled, cut a little hole into the middle of each one and scoop out some cupcake. Spoon lemon filling into hole. Pipe whipped topping onto top. Garnish with a lemon slice, if desired.

And there you go, a little bite of summer in each cupcake :-)