Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Summertime and the living is easy. Pink lemonade in one hand, and a pink lemonade cupcake in the other. The tartness of the lemonade makes these refreshing.

Lisa is the expert icing queen - the two-tone was a fun effect to go for!

These cupcakes fluttered through Amy's workplace, and then we made another batch for a July birthday party.

The recipe comes from a very pretty blog, Sweet Tooth. The writer has a bunch of other great ideas too!

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix

3/4 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 egg whites

• Combine all ingredients in medium-sized bowl. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds, then on medium for one minute.
• Line muffin tins with 18 - 24 cupcake liners.
• Divide the batter between cupcake liners. The original recipe says it makes 24, but we made 18 and the cupcakes seemed to be a good size. The liners should be about 2/3 full.
• Bake cupcakes in 350 F oven for about 25 minutes. If you insert a toothpick, it should come out clean.
• Cool cupcakes before adding icing.

Icing

3 cups confectioners (icing) sugar

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons frozen pink lemonade concentrate

Pinch of salt

Food coloring

• Mix together all ingredients on low speed, until combined. Increase the mixer speed to medium or high, beating until desired consistency.
• Divide frosting evenly between two bowls. Add food coloring.
• We tried to follow this tutorial on two-tone frosting technique. Give it a shot. Alternatively, use our mom's technique! Put the icing in the fridge for a few minutes, so it's easier to manipulative. Roll equal amounts of each color into long tubes (a little bigger than gummy worms) and place side by side in an icing bag.
• Add little straws or cocktail umbrellas for extra flair!

Plain white cake mix is the base.

Separating the yolk from the white.

Adding bright pink frozen lemonade.

Just wait... they're about to get much prettier.

Icing swirls.

This icing technique didn't work incredibly well for us,

but give it a shot! We basically did the same thing, minus the plastic.

Piping the two-tone icing onto the cooled cupcakes.

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake seems like such a springtime food, doesn't it? A million of these pseudo-healthy desserts pop up around Easter, just as bunnies start hopping around our backyard.

We used a recipe from an ancient cookbook... it's obviously well-loved, because it has no front cover, back cover, table of contents... but the recipe pages are all still intact (although some are starting to tear out). We think that it is the Five Roses: A Guide to Good Cooking (1967?) book, by Elizabeth Driver, which is described on Amazon as a must-have for vintage cookbook collections. So, this carrot cake recipe can be describe as an oldie but a goodie!

• Click on the photo to enlarge!
• Note: we halved the recipe.
• We were SO proud of our decorating creativity! We cut up a real carrot to lay on top of the icing, and used the tips of celery stalks for the leafy greens.

Cream Cheese Frosting (from the same book)

2 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup soft butter or margarine

1 package (113 g) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

• Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add vanilla (we always add a little extra).
• Beat in icing sugar gradually until desired consistency is achieved.
• Ice your cake!

Mixing for 5 minutes was a workout for Lisa's arms.

Look at that bright orange batter!

The cake, uniced. Transfer to platter before icing.

The icing should be pretty thick.

We were SO proud of the decorations!

Cake time!