Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Why I Love This Recipe
I had found a couple different recipes for 'Pink Lemonade Cupcakes' that I thought looked wonderful and decided to try one of them. The only problem was that when I went to the grocery store, they didn't have any frozen pink lemonade concentrate. So, I decided to improvise with some raspberry preserves that I had at home. The result: my husband ate two as soon as they were cool enough to spread on the frosting.
Ingredients You'll Need
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Just a pinch of salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites
1/3 cup thawed frozen Lemonade Concentrate
1/4 cup milk
A few drops of red food coloring
2 tsp red raspberry preserves (more or less depending on your personal preference...I started with 2 tsp and then just ended up eyeballing it in the batter and tasting)
Directions
Preheat oven at 350 degrees and place liners in muffin pan.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
In another bowl, Whisk together the egg whites, vegetable oil, sugar and lemonade concentrate. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk starting with the flour mixture. Add the flour three times and the milk 2 times. Add the food coloring to bring the batter to your preferred shade of pink.
FOR THE PRESERVES:
I tried two different ways of adding the raspberry preserves to the batter:
swirling the preserves into the batter once I poured it into the cups and,
whisking the preserves into the batter before pouring.
My husband(and official taste tester) couldn't decide which method he liked better, so you can choose one or both.
Scoop the batter into the muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until cupcakes spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer pan to a rack to cool for 10 minutes and then remove cupcakes to cool completely
note I found that this batter did not rise as much as I had anticipated, so I filled my cups nearly to the top because I like my cupcakes to be higher than the liners.
I used neon pink food coloring and the result was really vibrant.
