Triumphant Return: Pink Lemonade Cupcakes!

Hi there.  It's been a while, and I'm sorry.

Like, really sorry.

SO SORRY.

But I think I have something that will make you forgive me.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the very first recipe I ever invented all by myself: Pink Lemonade Cupcakes.

Well, maybe I shouldn't say I did it all by my myself.  I had some help from these lovely books:

But, using the delicious knowledge I learned from these volumes, I invented a recipe.  Yup.  Here's how that looked:

But I can't complain.  For my first try, I think these came out GREAT.  Here's my very own recipe:

1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 can (6 oz.) frozen lemonade concentrate (I used pink lemonade)
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl (if you're using unsalted butter, you should add a little salt here as well).  Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add lemonade concentrate, lemon juice lemon extract, and vanilla extract.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk in intervals (like this: flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour).  I also added about 3 drops of yellow food coloring... just for effect.

Pour into cupcake holders and bake 18 minutes.

Oh look, cakes.  The recipe made about 20 cupcakes.  They were good, I think, although I might use cake flour next time to see if I can get a lighter texture.  I meant to use cake flour this time, actually, but I straight-up forgot.  Whoops.

They have a pretty intense lemony flavor, so I coupled them with a plain vanilla buttercream.  I think buttercream is something people should be able to improvise, but here are some approximate ingredients (make enough for about 24 cupcakes).

1 stick of butter
3 c. powdered sugar
3 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Then I dyed it delightful pink, to complete the Pink Lemonade effect.

Also, I know it's winter.  But maybe these cupcakes will help you forget about winter.  Not that winter is a real thing, here in Los Angeles.

Enjoy!