The Coral Reef Cooler inspiration effect strikes again. I’m really not sure what it is about this drink that makes me want cupcakes…. but for whatever reason, I wound up – once again – whipping up some basic white cupcakes at 11 pm and dreaming up a new frosting.
This time, the frosting flavor was born completely out of necessity. I had butter, powdered sugar, but no milk. As I pondered this problem and mulled over the idea of putting on some clothes suitable for the streets of New York (i.e. NOT my stretched out sweatpants), I happened to look at my cocktail and inspiration struck. Why not use my leftover passionfruit juice instead of milk?
After tinkering around I ended up with a rather delightful – if not a TINY bit too sweet – frosting. I ended up adding a little lemon juice and extract for a kick and red and yellow food coloring to get the tropical color I felt passionfruit frosting should have.
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened to room temp (6-10 seconds in microwave works nicely
- 1 1/4 lb of powdered sugar (1 1/4 boxes – the conversions of this are tricky, it’s going to be around 3 1/2 cups if you pour the sugar into the measuring cup and don’t pack)
- 1 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 5 tablespoons passionfruit juice (no pulp)
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 teaspoons lemon extract
What you’ll need to clean up afterward
- 1 Mixing bowl
- 1 wooden spoon (if you’re going hard core… if not, a hand mixer)
- Measuring cup, tablespoon and teaspoon
Step One: Cream the butter with a whisk
Step Two: Combine the butter and powdered sugar and one tablespoon of lemon juice in the mixing bowl. You can continuously stir with a spoon, use a mixer, or use your hands to mash sugar and butter together into one large lump (the quickest method).
Step Three: Start stirring (or mixing on medium speed) and adding the passionfruit juice one tablespoon at a time. If, after adding the remaining 5 tablespoons of liquids, the frosting is too thick, add additional juice one teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. WARNING: the juice gives the frosting a lower “melting temp” so you may want to leave it a little thicker than you normally would.
Step Four: Apply frosting to your cake, cupcake… or eat with a spoon 
-Eat Hearty!
Tags: buttercream frosting, cupcake, dessert, frosting, lemon juice, passionfruit
