cupcakes by jenna-marie: Sun Drop Cupcakes

I have been making a lot of cookies lately (see my last post) and I even made some cake pops over the holidays, but I haven't made cupcakes since November for my friends birthday. My friends are the luckiest of all friends, because I often make them cupcakes for their birthdays. Recently, a good friend asked me if I was going to make cupcakes for my OWN birthday. I said no. I hope they can make me some cupcakes for a change. :)

So, a good friend of ours celebrates his birthday the day before my own! We were set to have sushi with him, his wife & their daughter and I asked his wife if she had any cake plans (she's a bit of a "caker" herself)! She said no, and I was SO HAPPY because I've been dying to try some "Sun Drop" cupcakes for awhile now.

For my friends in the north - Sun Drop is kind of a cross between Mountain Dew and Sprite. It's a North Carolina soda, and our birthday boy is a true North Carolinian through and through. He LOVES Sun Drop.

I had actually never tasted Sun Drop before I made these cupcakes, and all of the recipes that I could find online used a box mix (even Paula Deen!) so I modified a Mountain Dew recipe.

You really just can't go wrong with lemon and lime, can you?

This recipe really appealed to me because it called for real lemon and lime juice & zest, and it was a from-scratch recipe.

My friends noted that the consistency was almost like a pound cake, which makes sense - it had 2 sticks of butter and four eggs!

Although I love to bake, every step of it (except the dishes) I really love the decor. I was so excited to get to use up the rest of my pretty straws.

There is really nothing better than fresh citrus zest. I just LOVE it!!! Lemons, limes, oranges, whatever. Give me something to zest and I'm a happy girl.