As I already said I'm trying to make all the yummy things of the book "Meet me at the Cupcake Café". So there is this recipe for orange cupcakes with marmalade icing for a grumpy day :)
As it already says above it's with marmalade and I'm really not into orange marmalade. So I decided to look for a nice frosting with oranges. I came across the caked crusaders homepage. The caked crusader already worked together with Jenny Colgan (author of the book I'm talking about). So I thought I'd just use one of her recipes. She is wonderful! Discovering her blog was - well - bad for me and my surroundings as I'm baking even more now.
But onto the recipe and some photos.
Ingredients
120g butter, at room temperature
145g caster sugar
2 eggs
185g self raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125ml fresh orange juice
3 tablespoons grated orange zest
For the buttercream:
120g butter, at room temperature
180g icing sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice (start with 2 and add more if the mix needs it)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180˚C
Line a 12 hole cupcake pan with paper cases.
Start by making the sponges: beat together the butter and sugar until pale, light and whippy. It will take quite a while (depending on the softness of the butter) but don’t skimp as this is the stage that makes the sponge light and airy. I will often beat for 10 minutes or more.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Fold in the flour and vanilla extract.
Stir in the orange juice and, if using, the grated zest.
Spoon into the paper cases and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the sponge comes out clean. Mine took 20 minutes. Don’t panic that they look pale – the sponge is pale and won’t turn golden on baking.
Place the tray on a wire rack and, as soon as you can safely do so, remove the cakes from the tin – leaving them to sit in the hot metal tin means that they carry on cooking and can become less fluffy.
Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
Now make the buttercream: place all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well combined and light. Add more orange juice until you reach a soft but spreadable buttercream consistency.
Spread or pipe over the cupcakes.
http://thecakedcrusader.blogspot.com/2011/03/orange-cupcakes.html
The use of orange zest for the cupcakes is optional. The first time I made them without, the second time I added some zest and I prefer the ones with zest. It gives it some extra flavour and in my opinion makes them a bit more moist. But each to its own taste :)
The caked crusader also says that they don't brown - mine did. But they tasted delicious and so I don't really care if they brown or not :)
The orange cupcakes with orange buttercream frosting are a lovely, fruity and light option. They are not too heavy (you can have two if you want to) and they are sweet with a tiny bit of tangyness.. PERFECT !
onto the photos:
before the baking happened
and the finished product
