Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Paula Deen, quintessential Southern cook and baker extraordinaire, is the Cupcake Queen behind these pinkly scrumptious Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. So sweet, so light, so perfect for a summer porch party or afternoon tea!
My only twinge of misgiving about this delightfully girly recipe is that Paula Dean used a CAKE MIX as the basis for these cupcakes. Yes, gentle readers, a CAKE MIX!!!!! I had to swallow my indignant pride in baking-cupcakes-from-scratch, but the results were so precious I have since moved on :-)

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Yield 24

Bake 350 for 20 minutes

Cupcakes
1 box white cake mix (Duncan Hines) and items needed for cake mix
(1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 cup water, 1 egg)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (grated lemon peel, but I actually just used pure lemon extract)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons sweetened pink lemonade drink powder
Mix cake batter according to directions. Add in lemon zest, vanilla and lemonade powder.
Pour batter into cupcake liners. Bake according to directions on cake box. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting
I never follow frosting directions, I find it far more convenient to just dump ingredients together, adding just a bit of each at a time, and make it up as I go along!
1 pound confectioners sugar (I found I needed far less, maybe 1/2 pound at most)
3-5 tablespoons frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed (I used 4)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
Beat butter on medium high for 2-3 minutes or until pale and creamy. Reduce speed to medium and add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time. Beat well after each addition increasing speed to high after all sugar is added. Add in vanilla and lemonade concentrate and beat until buttercream is smooth.

I decorated my cupcakes with Sugar Pearl Sprinkles, which I found to be just about the most precious little items ever!!!!!

Ready for delivery to a birthday girl!!!!!!