I make a Watermelon Ice Cream Bombe every year and I’ve always wanted to do little matching cupcakes. I think it’s the pink+green that I love the look of. While these DO NOT TASTE LIKE WATERMELON – (did you get that?) they are adorable. A delicious vanilla-chocolate chip cupcake that is too cute to resist for a summer party.

ingredients:

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
1-3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2-1/4 cups cake flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla
pink food gel dye
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

vanilla buttercream
green food gel dye

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Carefully add the eggs one at a time until incorporated, then add the vanilla.

Now alternate milk with the dry ingredients until combined.

Add the pink gel dye, just enough to get the right watermelon-y tint to the batter. Add the mini chips and stir well – they will look JUST LIKE little watermelon seeds!

Spoon the batter into prepped liners, bake 15+ minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

Make up your buttercream – and then using green food gel, tint it to a nice soft hue. I just love food gels, you don’t need too much of it and the colors are always spot on.

Once that is all mixed in, I go back in and add a touch more green and give it a quick swirl. Just enough so that the color isn’t completely incorporated. This will give a nice stripe-y effect, once piped onto the cupcakes. You can frost by hand, or use a piping bag, ziploc with the end cut off, what have you. When the green comes out it should be nice and swirly.

These are a hit at parties, while true they don’t taste like watermelon, people get such a kick out of biting into them and seeing that they look like watermelon. It’s the mini chips that really seal the deal. They make you want to lie out by the pool and hold on to the last days of summer…