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It is freezing here in Ohio and I mean a bone chilling, teeth chattering, freezing…a whopping 12 degrees. The bad part is that it’s not even snowing, my theory is simple…if it’s going to be this cold, at least gimme a snow day, but unfortunately I have not gotten a single one this year! In the midst of this Ohio deep freeze, I was craving a little piece of summer and just happened to have some gorgeous oranges on my counter. I adapted a very simple recipe from the Joy of Baking, tweaking it just a bit to tantalize your taste buds with a lovely burst of orange. I then piped on some cream cheese frosting and enjoyed a little bit of summer! Bake these little beauties in bright cupcake liners, top them with sparkling sugar and I am betting that you will make the special people in your life very happy! Have a fabulous day and stay warm!
Notes:
Cupcake Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking;
Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from The Repressed Pastry Chef
Cupcake liners from World Market
Icing Tip from Bake It Pretty
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Orange Cupcakes
Ingredients
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of pure orange extract
Zest of 1 orange (optional)
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and lightly butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Place the sugar and orange zest into the bowl of your mixer and blend until moist and fragrant. Add in butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and orange extracts.
In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing.
-Makes 12 cupcakes
Cream Cheese Frosting
(1) 8 ounce package of cream cheese; room temperature
2 tablespoon of butter; room temperature
1 tablespoon of shortening
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar; add more to reach desired consistency
Directions
1. Combine cream cheese, shortening and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until smooth, creamy and well blended.
2. Blend in the vanilla extract.
3. Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar until you reach the desired consistency.
looks yummy
can i replace milk with buttermilk?
Hi, Joe! I don’t see why not. A lot of people use buttermilk and actually prefer it to regular milk. Let me know how it turns out!
This is a great recipe. Thank you. I’m a bit of an orange-a-holic though. I replaced half of the milk with orange juice and used two oranges’ zest. :) And added a bit of orange extract in the frosting.
Hi Kristen! The more orange the better, right? Thanks for visiting.
-Jamie
Looks great! Going to try tomorrow.
Hey,
There’s a Facebook page currently reposting photos and full recipes, which hurts bloggers’ ability to make a living (in addition to being illegal.) They’ve reposted this one of yours (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=436000026486422&set=pb.171850406234720.-2207520000.1364528349&type=3&theater). Will you please take a moment to report this using this form on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/?id=208282075858952)? I’m hoping that if enough folks report it, she’ll realize she can’t just repost others’ content like that.
Thanks,
Julie Ruble
Julie-
Thank you for giving me the information and I will take care of it. Have a great day!
-Jamie
Do you think this could be converted into a layer cake – or should I stick with the cupcakes?
Thanks very much – the recipe sounds wonderful.
Erin-
I have not tried this recipe in cake form, so I am unable to advise you in that direction. If the recipe were more current, I think I would be of more help. Thanks so much for stopping by.
-Jamie
What is the tip that you used?
Jennifer-
A large French tip was used on these cupcakes. Good luck and have a great day!
-Jamie
watch out with the fresh orange zest when I tried to make it the butter curdled.
Hi there!! i wanna know what nozzle you use for decorating this cupcake…its pretty n i wanna do the same…:)
Kaniz-
I used a large French tip. I hope this helps.
-Jamie
I finally made these tonight and I’m sorry but they were terrible. The stuck to the liners and became a gluey mess in the liner. I followed the directions to a T. I’m bummed and will have to find a new recipe. Sorry.
Yum! Pretty good, but they are slightly dry. I took them out at 16 minutes and they were done. (so maybe next time try 15 minutes). I used zest from a orange plus took a quarter of the orange and squeezed the juice into the batter. Also this made 10 cupcakes for me. (I used a 3 tablespoon ice cream scoop).