The Cost of Baking Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
It’s the unofficial beginning of summer.
Before I baked these pink lemonade cupcakes—which I took to a family gathering over Memorial Day weekend—I spent a lot of time looking at cupcake recipes and photos online.
I’ve made jokes about this before on Twitter, but it’s hilarious how you can insert just about any flavor before the word “cupcake” and someone, somewhere, will have a recipe.
I kept going, searching taco cupcakes and fried chicken cupcakes and baked potato cupcakes, and the first time I didn’t get a result was when I searched “pork chop cupcakes,” and even then I got an article about a restaurant that serves pulled pork cupcakes, which I’m counting as “close enough.”
So This Exists: The BBQ Pulled Pork Cupcake at Bourbon Steak in Washington, DC
I’m also counting my pink lemonade cupcakes as “close enough.” As far as cupcakes go, they’re great. As far as cupcakes compared to pictures of cupcakes on the internet go, they’re missing candy straws, perfectly-placed lemon drops and/or strawberry slices, and at least two more inches of frosting. (My parents were visiting this weekend, and my mom bought me one of those icing bulbs with the metal tips, and let’s just say there’s a bit of a learning curve.)
But now these cupcakes have their picture on the internet too, and I’m sharing them for the same reason I share things like “what I wore to work from home:” because you can still make something that looks good (and tastes good) even if you aren’t buying the most expensive components—and even if you don’t really have that much of a fashion sense (or baking sense).
What I Wore to Work From Home (and How Much it Cost Me)
You gotta wear clothes and you gotta eat, so you might as well do what you can with the skills and the budget you have.
COST OF BAKING PINK LEMONADE CUPCAKES:
Betty Crocker SuperMoist Lemon Cake Mix: $1.99
Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting: $2.19
Lucerne Jumbo Eggs: $0.55 (three eggs from a $2.19 dozen)
Signature Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil: $0.94 (1/2 cup from a $5.99 25.4 fl oz bottle)
Wilton Gel Food Colors: $0.05 (a few drops from the $3.39 four-color package)
Signature Kitchens Pastel Party Sprinkles: $0.05 (a few shakes from the $3.19 six-different-kinds-of-sprinkles package)
Total cost of baking 21 cupcakes (the box promised 24, but I only got 21 out of the batter): $5.77
Cost per cupcake: $0.27
Previously:
The Cost of Slow-Cooking an Artichoke and Serving it With Couscous and Balsamic Vinaigrette
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