I think most would agree that cupcakes are a great way to start off the week. Even if you don’t plan on making these today, at least you can start planning on how to treat yourself (or perhaps your family and friends) this weekend.
Today, I present to you Shirley Temple Cupcakes. Hopefully most of you have had a Shirley Temple drink before, you know, the kind with 7-Up or Sprite, a splash of grenadine, and a cherry on top? When I was younger, this was a drink I could never pass up (and I definitely couldn’t resist asking for extra cherries!). Now, I’ve made the drink into cupcake form and, let me tell you, these are amazing!
Maybe you’ve seen Shirley Temple cupcakes somewhere else on the internet before, but a lot of them just have an overload of food coloring and an underload of classic Shirley Temple flavor. So what makes these different?
In this recipe, cupcakes are baked then injected with grenadine and soda. If you add the grenadine and soda before baking, like many other recipes call for, you’ll lose most of the flavor. This method, as shown in the picture above, allows for the tastiest, most flavor-packed cakes.
And then, of course, there’s more grenadine in the icing and a cherry on top! Add white sprinkles to make these even more beautiful than they already are.
These are truly super simple cupcakes to make. You only need to prepare three things: the batter, frosting, and the grenadine-soda mixture to inject. That’s only one extra step from a regular cupcake, but the result is definitely delicious! Gourmet, actually.
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup greek yogurt
- ½ cup Sprite, Ginger-ale or 7-up
- ½ cup grenadine
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tbsp grenadine
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
- a couple drops pink/red food coloring (optional)
- 14 maraschino cherries
- For the cake: Preheat oven to 350F. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. In a smaller bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another small bowl, combine greek yogurt and soda. Alternately add flour and yogurt mixture to the creamed butter, beginning and ending with flour.
- Prepare your cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Fill ¾ of the way full. Bake for 17-22 minutes.
- Once cupcakes are out of the oven (they don’t need to cool completely), inject them with about 1-2 tsp grenadine.
- For the frosting: cream butter, heavy cream, and grenadine (and food coloring, if you choose). Slowly add sugar. Ice completely cooled cupcakes. Top with a cherry.
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