Pink lemonade cupcakes are a zhuzhed up version of a lemon cupcake with a touch of pink. They taste and look so bright and summery.

I was recently given the assignment to bring lemon cupcakes to a beach party. They turned out so cute and delicious, I wanted to share all the details of how I made them. See this post for how I individually packaged these cream cheese frosting lemon cupcakes. 

Lemon Cupcake Recipe 

For these cupcakes I used this lemon cupcake with lemon cream cheese frosting recipe. If I were to make them again I would 1,000% make the lemon cream cheese frosting again. It has to be the best frosting for lemon cupcakes ever created. I included the optional lemon extract that she listed in the recipe and it was the perfect amount of lemon flavor.  

Next time I make these, I would probably skip the from-scratch cake part and try a different recipe or I would use Betty Crocker lemon cake mix. I just didn’t love the crumb of the cupcake part but that very well may have been the result of baker error.

Optional Lemon Curd Filling

To be even extra and take the lemon flavor up a notch, I decided to fill the cupcakes with lemon curd filling. This was the recipe I used and the taste and consistency was perfect. My daughter who watches kids baking championship (which makes her an expert, right?) said to make sure the curd is thick enough that it wouldn’t leak through a napkin so that’s what I did. She said to make sure you cook it long enough to ensure the correct consistency, otherwise your cupcakes will be too mushy. I loved how the curd added that much more lemon flavor to the pink lemonade cupcakes. 

Bottom line, if you wanted to save time you could skip the lemon curd filling and you could use a lemon cake mix. Do NOT skip the lemon cream cheese frosting though!

Decorating Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Ingredients and Supplies For Decorating

• Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting using recipe listed above
• Pink and yellow gel food dye
• Piping bags
• 1M Cake Decorating Tip
• Paper straws, I used these
• Fresh Lemon slices cut into quarters (TIP: add these as close to serving time as possible)
• Paper liners. These paper liners are my favorite of all time. You can bake your cupcakes in them, or place already baked cupcakes in them. I baked mine in the yellow liners and then put them inside a second pink liner.

Steps for Decorating Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Step 1: Prepare the Two toned pink and yellow frosting:

Divide the lemon cream cheese frosting in half and tint half pink and half yellow using food dye. Put each color frosting in separate piping bags and snip the ends of the bags. To get the two-toned color, place the pink piping bag and the yellow piping bag together into another piping bag fitted with a 1M frosting tip. Keeping each color in their separate piping bag prevents the two colors from bleeding together and turning orange. Pipe the two toned frosting onto the pink lemonade cupcakes.

Step 2: Add the straws:

Cut the paper straws into the perfect size for your cupcakes (around 3 inches is a good length). Place the straw into one side of the cupcake so it looks like a straw in a glass of lemonade.

Step 3: Add the lemon slice:

Slice a lemon and cut each slice into fourths. Add them to the cupcake. Again, this is best done last because they tend to melt into the cupcake. Alternatively you could use a gummy lemon slice in place of the fresh. Then you don’t have to worry about adding them at the last minute.

    

DIY Packaging for Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I love to package cupcakes individually for beach picnics. The box protects them from the sand and let’s be honest, I love to zhuzh them up and make them look even cuter. If you are making a lemon themed favor, packaging the cupcakes is a must. It would make a perfect lemon themed favor for birthdays, weddings, pool parties, you get the idea.

Another benefit to individually packaging cupcakes is it’s easier to send leftover cupcakes home with people. See this post for all the details and supplies needed to recreate these DIY cupcake boxes.

I hope you enjoy these pink lemonade cupcakes as much as we did 🙂 Please tag us in social media if you make and post yours!