Lemon Mermaid Cupcakes

I've been on a bit of a mermaid kick lately.  They are so trendy right now and I've really been inspired to make some mermaid drinks and desserts.  I recently got this Mermaid Sparkle Sprinkle Blend from Fresh April Sprinkles and I knew I had to make cupcakes.  If you want to try these sprinkles yourself (or any other blend!) simply enter the code HEZZID15 at the check out and you will get 15% off your order!

Since I was making mermaid cupcakes I was feeling like they should be blue. I didn't really think they needed a blue flavor but I thought the cupcakes themselves should be blue.  A few months ago I bought butterfly pea flower extract and have been waiting for an occasion to use it.  The Butterfly pea is a legume and it's flowers can be used to make an edible dye.  While the color works out better in drinks, it did work in this recipe.

The cool thing about this extract is that it starts out as blue but at different pH levels it changes to pink or purple.  In these cupcakes it ended up making them a light blue color which was really pretty.  I wanted to use it in the frosting too but it wasn't working for that.   I didn't want to make plain old vanilla cupcakes so I made these lemon flavored.

These Lemon Mermaid Cupcakes are fun, taste amazing, and look awesome.   The cupcake is lemon flavored and light blue in color, I used just a basic vanilla buttercream on top, then rolled the tops in the Mermaid Sparkle Sprinkle Blend.   Sticking out the top of the cupcakes were candy melt mermaid tails!  I don't know a little girl out there who could resist these cupcakes.

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Lemon Mermaid Cupcakes

Yield: 1 dozen

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Lemon cupcakes topped with buttercream frosting, sparkling mermaid sprinkles, and candy melt mermaid tails.

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Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

• 1 ¼ c. flour
• 1 ½ t. baking powder
• ½ t. salt
• 1 stick butter, softened
• ¾ c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1 t. lemon zest
• 1 T. Butterfly Pea Flower Extract (or 1 t. vanilla + 1 t. blue food coloring if you don't have pea flower extract)
• ⅓ c. milk

For the buttercream frosting:

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 4 c. powdered sugar
• 1 T. vanilla
• 2 T. milk

For decorating:

• 2 oz. Fresh April Sprinkles Mermaid Sprinkles
• 12 candy mermaid tails

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a muffin tin with 12 blue cupcake liners.
3. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar.
5. Add in the egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and extract. Mix well to combine.
6. Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well.
7. Add the milk and mix well to combine.
8. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix well.
9. Divide the batter between the muffin cups filling ¾ of the way full.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
11. Remove from muffin tin and cool completely on a wire rack.
12. To make the frosting place the butter in a large bowl and beat until smooth. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time, beating after each addition.
13. Mix in the vanilla and milk and beat until smooth.
14. Cover the tops of the cupcakes with the buttercream frosting then roll in the mermaid sprinkles.
15. Stick a mermaid candy in the top of each cupcake and enjoy!

Notes

A Hezzi-D Original recipe