Grape Soda Pop Cupcakes

Oh, yes I did!

These lovelies were inspired by my first trip to the Bulk Barn, prompted by everyone on Twitter telling me how much I was missing in life by not frequenting said store. And I mean everyone. I think even Jessica Alba chimed in at one point and said “Are you crazy??”

Ok, well maybe not Jessica Alba, but you hear what I’m sayin’ right?  I do follow her, I mean, I have to follow a couple celebs for kicks and since my second husband Ryan Reynolds doesn’t have a twitter account that I can stalk  read,who else is there?

And she WOULD like these cupcakes, you know.

The point behind my ruminating on whether Jessica Alba would like my cupcakes is that I cave under mass peer pressure, I just can’t handle it. Especially when I think I am missing out on something cool.  And everyone on The Twitter was telling me I was missing out.

So off I went.

And this magpie was surrounded by all that is good in this baking world. Bulk barrels of every baking ingredient you could imagine and some that I couldn’t. Army gummy men? Check. Every type of salted licorice? Check.

So I wandered the store in a blissful haze, until I came to the side that held the small bins.

And saw a rainbow of colored sugar.

I had to slap my self multiple times to not buy every single color. We have a rule. We are moving. Everything we buy now we have to move. I hate moving. So every purchase is punishing myself because everything I buy that is not consumed in the next two weeks I have to pack, then move.

It’s twisted logic for sure but it actually seems to work well.

This time it did, as I promised myself a “load up the new pantry” trip to Bulk Barn.

Really, I should go buy myself something pretty to celebrate the fact that I resisted shopping.

 Ingredients Needed:

1 cup of butter
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
4 cups of cake flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cups of grape pop

Neon Food coloring pack

Ingredients for The Best Buttercream Icing Ever

Purple colored sugar

Cream the butter and sugar until well blended. Add  your eggs one at a time, mixing well after each is added, then add in the vanilla.

Whisk the flour, baking soda,salt and baking powder together in a small bowl.

This is where the food coloring comes in. First, let’s not pretend there is anything remotely healthy about these cupcakes, so let’s not worry about dye. We just poured grape soda into the mix. Some dye is really not going to tip the balance.

On the neon package there are combos to make all sorts of colors. Choose the purple one you like then add the drops -according to the instructions on the package needed to achieve your chosen color- to the grape soda. The grape soda alone will not color these cupcakes. I put in a triple dose of the purple to make the batter color you see in these pictures.

Once you are done that, add the dry mixture to the butter/egg/sugar alternately with the grape soda pop.

And this is what you get. If it’s not dark enough, quickly mix in another batch of food coloring.

Pour into cupcake liners about 3/4 full. These are a thicker, moist cupcake and they do not rise a lot. I made most of these into mini cupcakes in small muffin tins and those can bake up anywhere from 10-15 minutes, a lot faster than large ones.

Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes. Cool completely.

Voila.  Purple inside.

Of course, you use my Best Buttercream Icing Ever recipe and decorate these little beauties with a swirly top. I am developing an affinity for mini cupcakes lately, they are just the right size for kids and adults alike and the smallness just makes them so dang cute you can’t resist them.

Once they are iced, sprinkle the tops with the colored sugar.

This made one and half dozen large and 2 dozen minis. This will make 3 dozen large cupcakes and about a bazillion mini’s. Really. I can’t count that high. But let’s go with a decent 7 dozen.

I’m not going to lie to you, these are such a kid pleaser it’s unbelievable. We took almost two dozen mini’s to a playdate and the kids were in seventh heaven.  The flavor is good, they do actually taste quite a bit grape pop-ish and the look, oh my friends, the look is what really makes these adorable. The shrieks of joy from eating “a purple cupcake!” will resonate through the house – and that’s just the adults-  little hands will gleefully scoop up two at a time and that crunchy purple sugar..well…

..it just takes the cake.

Love,

The Purple is my Favorite Color Magpie