Shirley Temple Cupcakes

This is a easy, great cupcake recipe that is just perfect for summer. I made these a few weeks ago for Memorial Day but I'm just now getting a chance to share them.

For our Memorial Day celebration, I decided to go with a coctail cupcake theme. I made both Shirley Temple and Rum and Coke cupcakes. I got the Rum and Coke recipe from iheartcuppycakes. I didn't change a thing and it was AMAZING! One thing I will warn you about.... she is NOT joking when she warns about the icing looking curdled for a while. Even though I read it, I still freaked out a little because it took longer than I thought for it to smooth out.

For my Shirley Temple cupcakes I doctored up a yellow cake mix by substituting the water and oil with Cherry 7-up. This also makes it a little lighter, a little trick I learned from my failed attempt at Weight Watchers. You can also leave out the egg if you do this but I kept the egg. I would also suggest adding a little splash of grenedine for an extra kick. After all, this is a coctail (vergin as it may be) cupcake. For the icing, I used a recipe from "It's the Little Things in Life" and added some grenedine. It was phenomenal! She also gives what is probably a better recipe for the cakes so if you have a bit of time, I would encourage you to try hers instead of taking my easy way out :)

Here's a pic of the process and the end results!