This whole week I am going to share some treats from the kitchen. You could make these to give mom on Mother’s Day. I will also share a breakfast that you can serve mom or can always have it end up in an email to your honey as a big hint for a gift for you. I guarantee that it is easy enough for dad and the kids to make.
Today, we are starting with a cupcake. I wanted something girly, fun, and flavorful. I settled on creating a pink lemonade cupcake. When I think of pink lemonade I think of sweetness with a light lemony tang. That is just what the flavor of these are. They are very different in flavor from the perfect lemon cupcakes I have shared before. Those definitely scream lemon. These cupcakes are sweet with the perfect hint of lemon.
Now trying to lose weight while being a food blogger is tough but I just started. I’ve got 2 pounds down in 2 weeks so I had to do something to help me out. So, I sent some of these off to my sister-in-law to get some out of my house so I wouldn’t eat them all. They turned out so yummy I knew I would be in trouble. She said her family all gave the cupcakes a thumbs up and especially loved the cake portion.
This cupcake just starts off with a doctored up cake mix to make it unbelievably moist and tender. It also includes some lemon zest and powdered pink lemonade mix. Then the frosting gets some lemon zest and pink lemonade concentrate.
To decorate them I went looking for some candy lemon slices. I didn’t find them at the first store I went to but I did find some grapefruit candy in the bulk candy section and went with those. I loved that they were pink and yellow. Not only will these cupcakes be great for Mother’s Day, but also for a bridal or baby shower or even a Summer party.
Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
Cake:
- 1 (16.25 oz) package white cake mix
- 1 small package (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding
- 3 Tbsp sweetened pink lemonade drink mix (like Country Time Pink Lemonade mix)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 3/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup oil
- 4 whites eggs (save the yolks for tomorrows recipe)
- 6 drops of pink food coloring
Frosting:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- Zest from 1 lemon
- 2 pound package or 7 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 3 drops of pink food coloring
Decorations:
- 24 lemon slice candies or grapefruit slice candies
- 12 colored flexible drinking straws
- In a large bowl, whisk cake mix, pudding mix, and drink mix together. Add sour cream, lemon zest, water, oil, and egg whites to the dry mix. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed for about two minutes. Use a strong mixer, this batter is thick.
- Scoop batter into 24 lined muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until cupcakes don’t look wet and a toothpick inserted in one comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting the cupcakes.
- Prepare the frosting by creaming butter, shortening, and lemon zest together. Then add lemonade concentrate, milk and vanilla with a mixer. Beat until smooth. Then gradually add the sugar, mixing well until light and fluffy. Beat in the food coloring.
- Pipe frosting onto the cupcakes. (You will have plenty to pile it on. I had over 1 cup leftover. Leftover frosting is good sandwiched between two graham crackers). Place a lemon candy wedge on top of each cupcakes. With the straws cut the top 1/3 of the straw off just below the flexible part. Discard the tops. Then cut the remaining straw pieces in half. Place one straw piece in each cupcake to resemble a drink.
Cupcake recipe is a Real Mom Kitchen Original, Frosting is adapted from A Little Loveliness
Holy crap these are amazing!!! I’m making them for my daughters first birthday and i had to test out this recipe of course!!! They came out light fluffy and of course delicious!!!
These look and sound delicious!! I have been wanting to make these cupcakes. I have my own little recipe that I need to make and try, and will be posted on my website: bitterlysweet.wix.com Please check it out if you want
I have many great recipes on there, and would love for you to visit. 
I made these cupcakes this weekend for a party. They were moist and yummy. They were a hit. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us!
I just finished making these and they came out fabulous! I did what the other person said to do and in the batter i used 3/4 cup of the pink concentrate instead of the water and it worked great. and the frosting is super yummy as well. Thank you my friend is going to love these for her birthday bbq !
about how many grams is the 1 package of white cake mix and 1 small package of vanilla instant pudding?
Are the candies you used the same ones in the pictures? Or did you use the ones on the link?
I made these tonight and they didn’t come out good at all. I don’t know why. I followed the directions exactly and they were gooey and tasted gross. I even left the second part of the batch in longer and didn’t help. As soon as they rose they fell. Please tell me what went wrong or give me an idea as to what to do better.
MINE did the exact same thing! I have a feeling this has to do with this being essentially a ‘pudding cake’ recipe. I will be frosting them tomorrow and hope that filling in the large dip with frosting will be the solution.
Laura…thank you for the great recipe!
These are the best cupcakes ever!!! Still dreaming of the pink lemonade taste.
This is my first time to your website, and I found it through this recipe…so cute! I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for a while
These cupcakes are delicious! Made them this weekend but used lime concentrate in the frosting to make them with lime frosting! Thanks for sharing.
Instead of using 3 tablespoons of powdered drink mix in the cake batter, I used 3/4 of the frozen lemonade concentrate and left out the 3/4 c of water. My cupcakes turned out excellent! It was just one last thing that I didn’t have to purchase and was able to utilize the already opened can of frozen lemonade concentrate (which was also regular lemonade – not pink as specified). Great recipe either way!!! Thanks for the recommendation!!!
I really want to try this and the only thing holding me back was having to get both kinds of lemonade – LOVE the idea of how you used the concentrate in the cupcake, Jordan – might have to give that a shot! They really did work just fine that way? I’m such a “follow the recipe exactly” type baker…cooking is different, but baking i’m not as risky…thanks!
YUMMMMMMMMMMM! I am visiting from Ladybird Lane and I would love if you could link this up to my Delicately Constructed Friday Linky Party as well!
Thanks so much!
Have a great weekend!
Michelle
These look delicious! Great pictures, I just love Pink Lemonade, so I am sure I would love these as well! Thanks so much for showing this off on my blog today!
Carlee
These cupcakes look absolutely delicious!!! I love anything lemonade so I’m definitely going to give these a try!
I would LOVE if you would link up this project to our {{What I Made Wednesday}} Linky Party!
Briana @ Sweet Peas & Bumblebees
These look devine! I think I’m going to take these for my girls trip this weekend but I was wondering.. do you add the pudding mix even if the white cake mix says it has pudding in the mix? Thank you!
My husband and son made me these today for Mother’s Day. They are DIVINE. The cupcake is so moist and delicate, you would never know it was a box mix. The flavor is subtle and perhaps the best lemon based cupcake recipe we have ever tried, and we are some serious lemon lovers. Thank you so much for sharing, this is going to be our go-to summer cupcake recipe.
These look and sound delicious. I used to make a luscious lemonade cake years ago that called for frozen lemonade concentrate – now I’m going to have to go find it and give it a try. Thanks for the delicious reminder!
These are so cute!!
These look fantastic. Do you know of something I could use instead of sour cream in the mix? There is someone who cannot eat sourcream in my house.
I really want to make these! Thanks!
I don’t know if it would work for this recipe specifically, but you can often substitute plain yogurt for sour cream in baking recipes.
These are a great summertime cupcake idea.
Oh my goodness! Do these look delicious! Teacher’s Appreciation week this week so I think I’m going to make some for them. Yumm!
These are beautiful!! I’ve been considering making cupcakes (for the first time) ever since I bought my piping tool thing for the deviled eggs on Easter. LOL I’d have to try this recipe!
Great picture! These look so pretty! The perfect cupcake for summer!
These sound DIVINE! I have a pink lemonade cupcake recipe that is similar but I’m definitely trying this. If you want a lighter frosting, a pink lemonade whipped cream is simply incredible. But I like the sounds of this recipe!