Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Berry Limeade Cupcakes

On Friday I was considering making cupcakes as an excuse to use these adorable new liners I bought, but I wasn't so sure it'd be a good idea being alone with 2 dozen cupcakes all weekend. Then my Mom called me and asked me to make a dessert for a family gathering on Saturday, perfect timing, and perfect excuse.
So I searched a few of my favorite blogs for a white cupcake (because chocolate would have hidden the designs of my cute liners. Is that superficial of me? Oh well!) and I found these amazing looking Cherry Limeade Cupcakes from Annies Eats. And the best part: I had all of the ingredients on hand except the cherry juice, but I did have frozen berries so that was an easy substitute. Score!

I am very happy with how these came out, I think they're just adorable. And, as a bonus, they were pretty easy (although very messy) to make. A tip, don't fill up the cupcake well 3/4 of the way like you would for a rounder cupcake. You want these to be sort of flat and end below the wrapper so the glaze has somewhere to go.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. limeade concentrate
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk

For the lime syrup:
3/4 cup limeade concentrate
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the frosting:
3 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 tbsp. (or more) maraschino cherry juice (I used frozen mixed berries, pureed in the mini chopper)
red food coloring (optional)

For decorating (optional):
fresh lime slices
maraschino cherries

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl combine the cake flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir together and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed. Add in the limeade concentrate and mix to incorporate. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions. Add in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix ingredients just long enough to incorporate but no longer.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack over wax paper to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, whisk together the limeade concentrate and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl to make the lime syrup. Poke several holes in the top of each cupcake with a skewer and pour the syrup over the cupcakes, allowing it to soak in.

To make the frosting, combine the confectioners’ sugar, butter and maraschino cherry juice in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then increase to medium-high speed and beat until smooth. Add more maraschino cherry juice as needed to achieve desired texture. Add red food coloring if desired.

Frost cooled cupcakes. Garnish with lime slices and maraschino cherries, if desired.

Source: From Annies Eats, adapted from Baking Up Chaos



So...go make these now!

4 comments:

  1. Oh, yummy! I love the way you iced them, and those liners really are cute!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would love these! My favorite all time drink is a cherry limeade from Sonic...and now in a cupcake ~ what's better than that? :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You should definitely make them! It's a lot of flavor payoff for not much work :)

    ReplyDelete