05 June 2012


My baby girl, Eva, turned two last weekend.  How time flies!  We had a small family party for her.  I decided to do cupcakes instead of a regular cake.  I had a summery cook-out type menu planned (pulled pork, pasta salad, grilled veggie salad), so I decided to make pink lemonade cupcakes.  I found several recipes for "from scratch" pink lemonade cupcakes, but they all contained some kind of dairy, and Eva is allergic to dairy.  When it comes to cakes and frostings, store bought is actually best for dairy allergies.  Boxed cake mixes and canned frostings rarely contain dairy, while you are hard pressed to find a frosting recipe that doesn't start with either butter or cream cheese.  So while it seems like I took the easy way out with store bought, it really was best for the birthday girl (not that I'm opposed to using them anyway).

I found a site that suggested using pink lemonade drink mix as the flavoring for these cupcakes.  They added it to their homemade cake recipe, but I just added it to my store bought mix.  Perfect.


Pink Lemonade Cupcakes


Ingredients:
1 box white cake mix
Water, oil, and eggs called for on cake mix box
¼ cup + 2 tbsp powdered pink lemonade drink mix, divided
Red food coloring
1 can white frosting


Directions:
Preheat oven to temperature indicated on cake mix box.  Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake papers.


Prepare cake mix according to box directions.  Add ¼ cup pink lemonade drink mix and stir well.  Depending on the brand of drink mix, you might need to add a drop or two of red food coloring to achieve the desired shade of pink.  Mix well.  Fill muffin cups and bake as directed on package.  Let cool.


Meanwhile, pour frosting out into a medium bowl.  Add remaining 2 tbsp pink lemonade drink mix and stir well.  Depending on the brand of drink mix, you might need to add a drop or two of red food coloring to achieve the desired shade of pink.  Mix well.  Frost cupcakes when they have completely cooled.


Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.




You will have to adjust the amount of drink mix to your preference.  I think I used a little bit less than what was called for on the site I saw it on, but I thought they turned out perfectly.  The lemon flavor was definitely prominent, but not overpowering or pucker-inducing.

And instead of ice cream, I served them with pink lemonade sorbet from TCBY.



Now I have to include a few pics of the birthday girl.

Of course, she had to eat all the frosting off first.


Then she tackled the cupcake itself.

And I have to include this video.  Not the greatest quality, but I think you can still see what is happening.  She had trouble blowing out the second candle on her cupcake, so she went to Plan B.  So resourceful!



My sweet little 2 year old!

Happy Birthday, Eva!


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6 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you made these, I truly have been thinking about making some of these, and using the powdered drink mix! Now I know it will work!

    Happy birthday to sweet Eva, you're raising one smart girl! Why waste the effort when the candle sniffer (?) is right there!

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  2. She is a pastor's daughter, so she has seen the candle snuffer used many times, but she had never actually used it herself. When she grabbed it, I didn't think she'd actually be able to use it correctly without smashing the cupcake, but she did it perfectly!

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  3. thank you  for posting this, I'm not a fan of pink lemonade but I think I may try these with the cherry limeade drink mix!

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  4. These are so pretty!  Love the cupcakes...yum! :) 

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  5. Too cute for words. Happy Birthday to your gorgeous little one. Those cupcakes are gorgeous. I adore anything pink.

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  6. How cute was the candle snuffing little birthday girl! ;)  Priceless.

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