It's Cherry Season!

Cherries may be the prettiest fruit there is. Lucky for us we've got orchards full of them and they are ripe for the picking. When I think of summer, I think of sitting on the back porch sipping a cool, sweet drink. With that in mind, I wanted to make a cupcake that captured the flavor of summer but also showcased the beauty of our Bing and Rainier cherries. What better than cherry lemondade?

I could not find a recipe for cherry frosting that actually incorporated real, fresh cherries. They all called for maraschino cherry juice. Why would I ever use that when I have tons of fresh cherries at my disposal? I wound up having to kind of wing it and adapted the strawberry frosting recipe from Sprinkles using cherry puree. Cherries are extremely sweet all on their own so rather than using vanilla, I mixed in lemon juice to take a bit of the sweetness away. I piped the cherry frosting onto a lemon cupcake with a lemon curd filling and voila! The sweet and sour combination is awesome. Neither flavor is overpowering and they are so cute!