Alright- I love "from scratch" cooking just as much as the next girl who loves "from scratch" cooking, but sometimes I just want to take the easy way out.
Every once in a while on a Sunday, one of my old roommates from PlymouthHaus, RoachyPooh, and I plan a big potluck style meal for some of our friends. We call it Soul Food Sunday, and it's a tradition going all the way back to when we lived together. RoachyPooh is one of my very best friends, and my favorite person to be in the kitchen with. Funny thing, though- She didn't like me when we first met. How could that be?!? Well, we've gotten over that, and I am sooooo glad.
In case you're wondering, here she is with a basket of her AMAZING Heirloom Fried Chicken:
Isn't she adorable?
Anyway, since we were having soul food, I decided I was making some biscuits and gravy, which you may recall is one of my specialties, but what about my newest obsession, cupcakes? I wanted to keep them in general the southern food theme, but I didn't want to make Red Velvet. I mean, it's good and all, but in my opinion, a bit overrated. Maybe I just haven't had any really good red velvet cake?
Then it hit me, Strawberry Lemonade. Perhaps that's not very southern, but to my northwestern sensibilities, it seems like it would be very Virginian. Which is in the south, right? After looking about the interwebz for the perfect recipe, I found this one at Cafe Zupas, which intrigued me, both for the soda pop, and the cake-mix hack. I feel like a renegade when I refuse to use the directions on the box!
If you've looked at the recipe, you'll no doubt notice there is no strawberry to be found. That was easy, though, I just swapped the lemon-lime soda for some Nesbitt's Strawberry. YUM!
Take a gander at the finished product - pretty!
