Merry Tummy: Orange Cupcakes, Butter Cream Icing And Some Guessing :)

Once you are back from holidays it takes some days to get back to normal routine and start blogging again. Finally today, after 12 days I am here to share a new recipe with you all. I was planning to make orange cup cakes for a long time, but I kept on postponing it for some or other the reasons. When I came back from holidays I just wanted to make them this time without giving any second thought :)

This time I took some tips on how to make perfect cupcakes from bakingmad.com and I was happy with the texture and softness. BakingMad has some amazing collection of recipes for cupcakes, scones and breads and many more. It is always so good to browse through their site and look for interesting recipes.

Coming back to the recipe. Orange cup cakes are very fresh and have subtle aroma and flavour of tangy oranges. I opted to make butter cream icing because butter cream icing is generally sweet and thus balances really well with tangy orange taste. If you are wondering why I chose pink and blue colour, then yes there is a reason for it. It is an idea for baby shower. Last year British summers were very exciting with Queen diamond jubilee celebrations and Olympics and this year we will soon have a royal baby. I think and feel that royal baby will be the girl. What do you think guys? Girl or a boy? Please leave comments below.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes

2 cups self raising flour
1 ½ cups softened butter
2 cups castor sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 medium size eggs
1 Orange zest
Juice from one lemon

For Butter cream icing:

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!)
3-4 cups icing sugar sieved
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
2 drops of pink and blue food colours

Method:

For the cupcakes

Line the 12 cup cake liners in cupcake moulds.
Preheat the oven at 180 C or 160 C (If using fan oven) for 10-12 minutes.
Cream together butter, orange zest and sugar till it becomes soft and turns in pale yellow colour.
Keep mixing one egg at a time and beat for 5 minutes.
Sieve the flour and baking powder. And mix slowly 2 tablespoons at a time in the butter mixture. Keep repeating till the whole flour is incorporated.
Finally add the orange juice and give quick mix.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or till the skewer inserted in the centre of the cupcake comes out clean.

For Butter cream icing:

Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes.

If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

Divide in two equal quantities and mix colour.

Notes:

Always use the ingredients at the room temperature.
Baking time may differ from oven to oven, however if the cake turns golden in colour and is still under cooked than cover it with baking paper and then bake.
This cupcakes taste good with chocolate icing as well