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

Taste:

Slightly sweet zingy and soft.

An Iberian Experience :) Spain And Portugal. Indian Vegetarian Experience

Yes yes! I am back. Where was I? I went for a holiday. I and my hubby went to Spain (Barcelona) and Portugal (Lisbon) for a week. I must say both the cities were poles apart from each other. Barcelona on one hand is bigger and crowded; Lisbon on the other is smaller with large hearted people.

Barcelona is a city for everyone. It has something for kids, thrill seekers, beach lovers, architecture enthusiastic or people in search of peace and calmness. I just enjoyed walking around the city. We walked around old city, small lanes to huge squares, saw famous buildings, churches and also the ones where tourist do not go. Barcelona is all about walking and then stopping and gazing around. Gaudi’s buildings are the famous ones in Barcelona and one can’t miss them. All his work is inspired from nature; he liked the mosaic tiles work, the wavy buildings, tree like churches and many more. Being a food lover, I must say Barcelona does not disappoint vegetarians. We had Tapas (small portions of food) and Paella (Sticky kerala rice biryani); both these dishes are very famous and tasty and you will find most of the restaurants selling them. In drinks, people love to have Sangria –it is fruit wine punch with hint of brandy and is served in 2 litre glass jug with some ice cubes; it is very yummy and even if you do not like wine, I am sure you will enjoy this drink. For Barcelona-Colourful is the word- a perfect blend of nature and culture.

Little Tapas, Fruity Sangria and Colourful Paella

Wavy Casa Mila La Pedrera, On its roof and Wavy Balconies

The Chruch-Sagrada Familia, Looks like tree branches from inside and beautiful mirror work

Talking about Lisbon; it is a very cute city on hills. We stayed there for 2 days and totally enjoyed every bit of it. One thing that I will never ever forget about Lisbon is the Tram 28. A bright yellow train making its way through curvy tree-lined streets, hilly areas, the old quarters- What an historical sight it was!!.. We hopped off and on where we wanted and enjoyed the ride. On the hill we saw an Indian Restaurant named Agra and we jumped in. We had delicious chana masala, jeera rice, garlic naan, palak paneer-I still can’t forget the taste. Yes! Portuguese food is like Goan food (fish and rice) so we being vegetarians were very happy finding an Indian place to eat. During our walking tour, our guides took us to Alfama which is tiny city (more like village) with really very narrow paths and streets. There we tasted Ginjinha- a sweet alcoholic drink infused with the flavour of cherries. It was a good and different drink served as tiny shots :-) Next day we went to tourist attractions like Belam Tower, Abril Bridge and Jerónimos Monastery. Just across the Belam Tower is Belam Pastries Shop who sells these amazing Custard Tarts, which is famous all over the world. And you will be shocked to know that on Christmas they sell 40,000 pieces of it. It is more like puff pastry as the base with slightly warm custard, hmmmm delightful :). So, if you are a non vegetarian do go there, you will love the food, the music, and the city :). For me it was about hills, trams and the people :)

The famous Pasties De Belum and its Custard Tarts

US With The Lady Who Sells Ginjinha

Lisbon Top View and Hubby @ Belum Towers

My Favourite- Tram 28

I hope you all will like the post. Comments please :) :) :)