Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

These beautiful Pink Lemonade Cupcakes are perfect for baby and bridal showers, and any other cupcake-worthy occasion. They're soft and springy with a luscious sweet-tart frosting piped into perfect petals.

(This recipe was originally published in June 2012, but was updated with new photos and content in 2024).

Pink lemonade cupcakes are easy to make and feature lemon-flavored cupcake batter and icing, both tinted pink with a little food coloring. The frosting begins as a straightforward American buttercream, but with the addition of fresh lemon juice, it transforms into a lemony treat.

Individually, the cupcakes and frosting feature bright lemonade flavors, but together, they are a perfect whole. One compliments the other in complete harmony.

The icing on the cake (literally) is piping the pink frosting to resemble a rose. This is done quite easily using a large closed star tip and piping a pinwheel starting from the center of the cupcake and working your way out.

With very little effort, the result is a dozen blush roses screaming with the flavor of summer. These cupcakes would also be perfect for bridal showers, baby showers, Mother's day, Easter, your mom's birthday, your birthday, your daughter's birthday, anyone's birthday, or any breast cancer awareness function. They are just that dynamic.

Ingredient notes

• Oil: These pink lemonade cupcakes feature oil instead of butter which not only offers a more neutral flavor but instills some serious moisture. Use vegetable oil or any other neutral-flavored oil here.
• Egg Whites: Instead of whole eggs I use egg whites to maintain a white a canvas for the batter. The yolks would give the cupcakes a yellowish tint which would mar the perfect pink look of these delicate treats.
• Buttermilk: Another element providing moisture and flavor is buttermilk. You could use regular milk instead, but I think the buttermilk adds even more tenderness to the batter and is worth including.
• Lemon: You'll need some lemon zest and fresh lemon juice for the pink lemonade cupcake batter, and some fresh lemon juice for the icing. Make sure to zest the lemon before cutting and squeezing it!
• Food Coloring: From my experience, one drop of red gel food coloring each is enough for the batter and frosting. I recommend using a gel food coloring, especially for the frosting, however, if you're using a water-based food coloring, you may need to add a bit more to achieve your desired color.

How to make it

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Then, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together egg whites, sugar, oil, buttermilk, lemon juice and zest until well blended.

Add half the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Then add buttermilk and mix again, followed finally by the remaining dry ingredients. Do not over mix.

Add red food coloring to achieve desired pink color.

Fill each liner about half full with batter.

Then bake the cupcakes for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely.

To make the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat soft butter until nice and fluffy. Pause the mixer occasionally to add the confectioners’ sugar a little at a time and beat until combined and fluffy, scraping down the sides occasionally. Add lemon juice and a pinch of salt and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add red food coloring to achieve desired pink color.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large piping tip (preferably a closed star tip to achieve a rose look) with the frosting and decorate the cupcakes as desired.

To achieve a rose look with the frosting, pipe in a pinwheel from the center of the cupcake outward.

Frosted pink lemonade cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 2 days in airtight containers. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.

Expert tips

The original recipe I published in 2012 featured frozen lemonade concentrate, however the two brands that weren't made with high fructose corn syrup at the time are no longer available. So I decided to update the recipe to stick with fresh lemon instead of frozen lemonade concentrate. This is the the new and improved recipe you'll find now!

Whenever I make a recipe that uses egg yolks, I individually freeze the egg whites to save them for a future recipe. I put each egg white into a small plastic bowl, freeze it, then pop it out of the bowl and transfer to a freezer bag where I store all my frozen egg whites until I need some.

This is a great example of an opportunity to thaw a couple of frozen egg whites overnight in the fridge and use them without having to crack fresh eggs and potentially waste the yolks.

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