Neither of us could decide on a flavor, so when Sam suggested watermelon, we went for it. I know, watermelon cupcakes sound strange. And the first batch we made was absolutely horrible. I looked for a recipe with good reviews, printed one out, and we got started. As we were mixing the batter, I noticed it didn't call for any eggs. I thought it was weird, but we put them in the oven anyway.
Fast forward 18 minutes, and we had sunken, burned on the bottom, raw in the middle, bright pink cupcakes. No bueno.
The second recipe we used was my go-to white cake. But instead of milk, we substituted watermelon juice. They were perfect! With a subtle hint of watermelon flavor, and a gorgeous pink color, these cupcakes were some of my favorites.
We paired them with a honey lime cream cheese frosting. Yum!
Watermelon Cupcakes
1/2 cup butter
1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup watermelon juice (puree watermelon in blender and strain through a sieve)
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375*.
Cream butter and sugar. Sift dry ingredients together into a bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, to the butter and sugar mixture. Alternate dry ingredients and watermelon juice and mix to combine. Add extracts and mix for 15 seconds on medium speed.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 15 to 18 minutes.
**Be careful not to overfill the pan. Each cupcake liner should be half full. Any more, and they expand to much over the pan and are hard to remove and decorate.
Honey Lime Buttercream
1/2 cup butter
1 tbsp lime zest
2 tbsp honey (I used local orange blossom honey)
3 cups powdered sugar
Beat butter with lime zest and honey until light and fluffy. Beat in powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches until you reach desired consistency and sweetness. I used ~3 cups.
Yummy they were awesome!
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