Raspberry Lemonade

Since summer was winding down I felt the need to make a cupcake to capture the refreshing feeling that summer brings so many people. I decided that I would make some sort of lemonade type cupcake. I few weeks prior to this experiement I was walking around downtown Saint Petersburg, FL, where I live and walked into a local cupcake shop. This is a habit of mine since I want to own a shop myself one day. When I walked in I purchased a Pink Lemonade cupcake and was sadly dissapointed when I ate it :(. It tasted like a pink cupcake...not a pink lemonade cupcake....all I could taste was vanilla and food coloring....which for those of you that dont know...too much coloring makes food incredibly bitter.

So with that in mind I went home and told myself....I can so do better. It actually took me 2 tries to get this cupcake right. I tried making a buttermilk based cupcake first....I hated it. For some reason I can just taste the bitterness of the buttermilk no matter what I put it in. So I nixed that idea and came up with the recipe I am about to share with you all :D

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 whole egg
1/3 cup thawed raspberry lemonade concentrate (you can use whatever lemonade you want)
1/4 cup whole milk
pink food coloring (if you use gel you don't need a lot...i used a smidgen and it was uber bright!)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your cupcake tin with your liners and spray with a flour based cooking spray to keep your cupcakes looking nice.
2. In your mixer bowl whisk together your sugar, oil, egg and lemonade concentrate.
3. In a seperate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add the flour mixture and the milk in 3rds starting and ending with flour (flour, milk, flour, milk, and flour) Mix until just combined.
5. Add your food coloring and mix until evenly colored.
6. Fill your cupcake liners 2/3rds full and bake in the oven until the tops of the cupcakes spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
7. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove the cupcakes to completely cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry Lemonade Frosting
INGREDIENTS
3 cups confectioners sugar (you can use more if you need to)
1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/8 tsp of salt
2 tbsp thawed raspberry lemonade concentrate (use more if you want a stronger flavor)
pink food coloring

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat together the butter, salt and concentrate until creamy.
2. Slowly add in your powdered sugar until you get the consistency you would like.
3. Add in your food coloring until you achieve the desired color.

That's all there is too it! All that's left to do is pipe on that frosting and enjoy!