Friday, July 15, 2011

Cake #25: Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes


I found this recipe on Pinterest at  Yum Sugar. It's a minor adaptation of Nigella's Fairycake recipe from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I was intrigued as I've never made a cake recipe in my food processor before.

I'll warn you, it makes a shockingly small amount of batter that doesn't seem capable of making twelve cupcakes. But it does! Twelve gloriously fluffy, wonderful, kick-ass cupcakes.

Speaking of fluffy, I've never had a lighter from-scratch cake in my life. They're stunning.


Orange Creamsicle Cupcake Ingredients:
3/4 cup self-rising flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup butter, softened
7 tbsp sugar
2 tsp orange flavoring
1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional: 1/4 tsp almond extract
2-3 tbsp milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with baking paper cups.
3. Put all the ingredients except for the milk into a food processor and blend until smooth.



4. Pulse while adding the milk down the funnel to make for a soft consistency.


It doesn't seem like enough batter, but it will all work out, scrape every bit from the bowl and try to fill each cup equally. Mine came to about 1/3 full.


5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden on top. It's best to start checking them at 12 minutes.


Orange Cream Cheese Icing:
1 stick (4 oz) butter softened
8 oz softened Cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp orange flavoring

Directions:
1. Combine the room temperature butter and cream cheese together in a mixer with a paddle attachment.
2. Slowly add the sugar 1/4 cup at a time and add the orange flavoring at the end.


3. Pipe unto cooled cupcakes.

A thing about piping. My favorite piping technique is to use a ziploc bag and to cut the end off the corner. No tip, no fuss, no bother. And it looks great. The bags are easier to fill if you place them corner down in a tall glass.



Add orange slice.




Next time when I bake these again, and there will be a next time, I think I'll add some orange zest. They were very subtle, but still incredibly delicious.

Linked up With:
Tip Junkie handmade projects

12 comments:

Jenn said...

I LOVE your cupcake liners!! The cupcakes are so cute too.

LaVonne said...

Now these look great! Thanks for sharing with us.

I pinned this to my Food To Die For board on Pinterest :)

Enjoy your weekend!

LaVonne @ Long Wait For Isabella

trooppetrie said...

oh me these look amazing and I think my husband would love them. is that the orange candies on top

Eileen The Artful Crafter said...

Everything you make is beautiful, Nicole!

Thank you for the tips on making the pretty icing swirls.

thekathrynwheel said...

Ooh they look scrummy. I think I could eat all of them in one go!

Dear Lillie said...

These look divine!

keri said...

How funny - I made a orange creamsicle cupcake last week (not deliciously homemade like yours, though!)...I'd love for you to link this (and any other cupcake related post - new or old!) to our month long cupcake party:

http://shakentogether.blogspot.com/2011/07/were-declaring-july-cupcake-month-and.html

Hope to see you there!
keri

Unknown said...

Oh yum! I love orange creamsicle! The addition of the gum candy on top is a great idea to single what yummy flavor is inside. :D

Life-n-Reflection said...

I love the added orange slice, great idea!

Juls said...

these look so yummy and fab!! Hugs Juls

Hope Sewell said...

Oh these sound so good!!! Come check out my blog www.hopesewell.com and enter my very first giveaway!!

Helen said...

Oh my, these look delicious!!!