Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I recently joined Pinterest, and I LOVE IT. The number of gorgeous-looking, mouth-watering recipes is enough to do a girl like me in! I found these cupcakes a few weeks ago, and knew I had to try them. The cupcakes and icing turned out perfectly, and I'll be making these again for sure. (And I'll honestly say I'm in love with this picture - that we took on our kitchen table yesterday!)

Cupcakes:

1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c canola oil
2 egg whites
1/3 c thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate
1/4 c buttermilk
3 drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350°. Put paper liners in muffin tins.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.

If you don't have buttermilk, make the substitute (1/4 cup milk and just under 1 tsp lemon juice) and allow it to sit for 5 minutes.

Combine sugar, oil, egg whites, and lemonade concentrate in mixer. Whisk until combined. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk (3 additions of flour mixture, 2 of buttermilk) until smooth.

Add 3 drops red food coloring (or amount desired) to color batter.

Pour into liners (about 3/4 full) and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out cleanly.

Allow to cool before frosting.

Pink Lemonade Frosting:

3 c + 3 TBSP powdered sugar
1 stick butter (at room temperature)
1/8 tsp salt
3 1/2 TBSP pink lemonade concentrate
2 drops red food coloring
pink sanding sugar

Combine powdered sugar, butter, salt, and lemonade concentrate together. Whisk until smooth. Add food coloring until desired color is reached.

Pipe onto cupcakes, and dust with sanding sugar.

Makes 9 cupcakes.
Comments from the cook: I doubled the recipe for cupcakes (and made 18), but left the quantities as they were for the frosting. I found the amount of frosting to be perfect for the double-batch of cupcakes, and mine were generously frosted.

I added more lemonade concentrate to both the cupcake batter and icing than the original recipe called for (text above indicates increased quantities), but you could scale back a bit if you're going for more subtle flavors.

Originally found on Pinterest, which directed me to the recipe posted here (some text taken from her site).