Have you ever been to Sonic®?

Well, I have. The most delicious item on the menu: Cherry Limeade. Seriously, it is delicious! When I stumbled upon this recipe I just KNEW that we had to give it a whirl.

What is so crazy, is that it totally has the tart limey taste that you would fine in limeade, but then the cherry's sweetness kicks in. Overall, it is a yummy cupcake, which is also REALLY pretty!

The Recipe:

adapted from Annie's Eats

Batter:

3 c cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 c unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c sugar

1/2 c + 2 Tbsp frozen limeade concentrate, unthawed

3 eggs

3/4 c whole milk

Lime syrup:

1/2 c limeade concentrate, unthawed

1/2 c confectioners sugar

Frosting:

4 c confectioners sugar

1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 c shortening

4 Tbsp maraschino cherry juice

1 tsp grenadine (optional)

Garnish (optional):

Lime slices

Maraschino cherries, with stems (because it's prettier)

Directions:

Prehead oven to 350 degrees, and prep your cupcake pan with paper liners. Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together, then add limeade concentrate.
Now, after I added the limeade I got a little freaked out because it looked all curdled & weird. sorta like this:

Don't panic. It will all work out in the end.

After you add limeade, scrape down bowl, then add your eggs, one at a time, making sure that they are mixed in well. Scrape down your bowl again.

Add 1/3 of your flour mixture, and blend until just mixed in. Add 1/2 of your milk. Repeat this, ending with flour. Make sure that once flour is mixed in to turn off your mixer. Even though the batter is a bit lumpy, you don't want to over mix. Remove from mixer, then give it a stir with a spoon or spatula 2 or 3 times, mainly to check that all the flour has been distributed properly. Batter will look pancakey, kinda like this:

Grab your cupcake pans, and fill each cup about 2/3 full. I used my trusty ice cream scoop to ensure that they would come out approximately the same. 

Bake these puppies for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the center. Let them sit in the pan for about 5 minutes, then remove them onto a wire rack and cool completely. 

While they cool, prep your syrup. Easy peasy, whisk the confectioners sugar with the limeade until it's smooth. Once your cupcakes are almost completely cool, poke some holes in them, so when you brush your syrup over the top, it will also leak into the cupcake. I used a kabob skewer because it makes bigger holes. If you don't have one, just poke each cupcake a hundred times with a toothpick. (Had you had a kabob skewer you'd get away with poking it like 10 times)  About 10 min after I brushed the syrup over the cupcakes, I repeated the process. I wanted to make extra sure that they were limey enough.

Once the limeade syrup is brushed over the cakes, prepare your frosting. Put shortening and butter in a mixing bowl. Cream together, then add cherry juice. Slowly add confectioners sugar, 1 cup at a time. Once blended, check your consistency and flavor. I thought frosting lacked cherry flavor so I sent my husband to the store to pick up some grenadine. I added about 1 tsp, to give is an extra cherry boost. If you want to enhance the pink color, you can add a bit of food coloring to the frosting. Make sure that you are aware of the consistency of your frosting. If you add too much liquid it will be too runny.

Pipe frosting on cupcakes and garnish with a lime and cherry, if desired. If you are garnishing them immediately, I would suggest serving these the same day. I put some in the refrigerator and tried them the next day and the texture changed quite a bit. The cupcakes were wonderfully moist soon after completion, but after sitting in a refrigerator overnight, they became a bit too dry for my liking.

All in all, the cupcakes were great. They were light, unlike last week's super rich cupcake, and they helped satisfy my craving for my favorite Sonic beverage!