snickerdoodle cupcakes

I have been tasked with making cupcakes for a coworker’s 60th birthday celebration tomorrow. At first I was thinking of making the Snickerdoodle cupcakes I posted about in Cupcakes Taste Better Than Gasoline, but then I decided I wanted to try something new – something light and fruity for spring. I did my usual internet perusal and found a recipe for lemon cupcakes made with light coconut milk. Sounds tasty, right?

Since I always like to be cautious, I baked them last night. This way, if they didn’t turn out as hoped I still had tonight to make a new batch. Good thing. They were…weird. Perhaps it was the light coconut milk? I’ve cooked with it, but never baked with it before. The batter was made from scratch, and that was the only thing in it that wasn’t normal for a cupcake… Whatever it was, I knew that recipe was not a keeper.

So today I regrouped with a good old-fashioned lemon boxed cake mix. Easy peasy, trusted results! I put lemon batter in, I got lemon cupcakes out! I did try a little experiment with the frosting – I decided to make a cherry flavored buttercream. It may very well be the best thing I have ever created. I had a decent amount left after frosting the cupcakes. I didn’t want to wash it down the sink but I knew that if I put it in a container in the fridge that I would end up gorging myself on it at some point later in the evening. I did eat a giant blob of it before disposing of the rest. 😛

So, lemon cake + cherry frosting = Cherry Lemonade Cupcakes! I got a bag of colorful buttons from the local craft store to use as decoration because the birthday girl loves to sew. Hopefully people can control themselves long enough to remove the buttons before diving into one of these babies…