While regular cakes are ideal for some occasions there’s nothing like a tasty cupcake to put you in a good mood. Plus they’re so much more portable than slices of cake.

These pink lemonade cupcakes are so pretty to look at and they have the zingy flavor of pink lemonade. It’s really a perfect combination for parties or events- or when you just want a really zesty and cheerful dessert.

The cake batter for this recipe is simple to make. You’ll need to whip together the eggs and sugar until they get quite a bit of volume. In another bowl combine the dry ingredients. Then in a smaller, microwave-safe bowl heat some milk and butter together. Then you temper the egg mixture by adding a little bit to the hot milk. Do this with a few spoonfuls and then combine them altogether.

Mix this with the dry ingredients before adding in some vanilla extract and the magic ingredient- thawed frozen lemonade mix. This is the stuff that comes in the tube from the freezer section of the grocery. It’s a concentrated mix that has quite a bit of sweetness and flavor- which makes it perfect for this recipe. Plus, it also adds moisture to the batter.

The lemonade mix does have some pink coloring, but I also added a few drops of red food coloring, too, since most cake batter tends to turn more yellow or orange during baking. If you prefer to leave it out that’s fine, too.

While the cupcakes are baking you’ll need to work on the frosting. The cake is made from scratch, but the frosting uses store-bought for a much quicker result. If you prefer to make your frosting from scratch, too, here is a wonderful recipe for cream cheese frosting. You can simply replace homemade for store-bought if you’d like.

Since there’s lemonade mix in the frosting as well you’ll need to add a bit of confectioners sugar so that the thick texture isn’t thinned out by the liquid. The lemonade mix will tint the frosting ever so slightly, but I added some red food coloring to amp up the color.

Both the cupcakes and the frosting should be chilled before decorating begins. This ensures that the frosting goes on perfectly.

I used the back of a spoon to apply the frosting in a random pattern and then topped it off with 3 jelly beans on top of each cupcake. I had some of the “only red” jelly beans which adds a nice tough to the finished look.

If you like red or pink sprinkles better then by all means use those. And, if you just want plain, pink cupcakes these little sweet treats have all the flavor you could want without any extra toppings, too.

The cake part of these cupcakes is perfectly moist, not too dense and not too light, and has a hint of that pink lemonade flavor. Together with the cream cheese and lemonade frosting it’s a fun and unique take on the classic cupcake that just makes you feel happy.