Sparkling White Grape Juice Cupcakes

For Violet's shower I made Lollipop cupcakes with strawberry cake and these Sparkling White Grape Juice Cupcakes!  I originally saw the idea at Betty Crocker.  Betty Crocker's were actually Pink Champagne cupcakes which I thought sounded amazing but not really appropriate for a baby shower so I subbed in sparkling white grape juice for the champagne.  The result was not quite what I had hoped for.  According to the reviews for the Pink Champagne cupcakes the champagne flavor really came out in the cupcakes, but with the sparkling grape juice the flavor was very subtle.  The cupcakes still tasted great, they just seemed more like vanilla than sparkling grape juice which wasn't what I was going for!  Oh well, An 'A' For Effort right? :)  At least I really liked the way the frosting, decorating pearls and sprinkles looked!

Sparkling White Grape Juice Cupcakes  Adapted from: Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

Sparkling Grape Juice Cupcakes:

1 box vanilla cake mix, the 'supermoist' variety

3 egg whites

1/3 C canola oil

1 1/4 C sparkling white grape juice

Sparkling Grape Juice Frosting:

1/2 C butter, softened

4 C powdered sugar

1/4 C sparkling white grape juice

1 tsp vanilla

red or pink food gel

Decorations:

edible pearls

pink sugar crystals

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F.

2. In large bowl, combine dry cake mix and sparkling grape juice. Add oil, eggs and food color. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

3. Bake 17 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
4. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
5. When the cupcakes are almost cool,  prepare the frosting: In medium bowl, beat frosting ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
6. Put frosting into an icing bag and pipe onto cupcakes. I used Wilton tip #18.
7. Sprinkle with pink sugar crystals and edible pearls.

This  post linked to: Sweets for a Saturday #2 at Sweet as a Sugar Cookie, Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade