Summer Treats: Orange Zest Cupcakes

On this post I made something a little bit more complicated. This recipe took a lot more effort and supplies, but the end result made it completely worth it. Orange Zest Cupcakes The recipe requires quite a few supplies, but if you are a regular baker then you should have most of these things lying around in your kitchen. The recipe creates 12 cupcakes. The entire bill for all supplies came out to be about $20 YOU WILL NEED:

• Cupcake pan
• 12 Cupcake holders
• 2 ¾ cup Powdered sugar
• ¾ cup Cake flour
• 1 cup of unsalted butter (½ cup for the cupcake batter and ½ cup for the frosting)
• ½ tsp Vanilla extract
• ½ tsp Orange extract
• ¼ cup Buttermilk
• ¾ cup All-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp of orange zest
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• ⅛ tsp Baking soda
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• ¾ cup Granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tbsp Lemon juice

Prep work Estimated time: 1 hour             Cupcake Batter

• Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
• First sift your all-purpose flour and cake flour into one mixing bowl.
• Then add your baking soda, baking powder and salt to the same bowl and mix it all around.
• In a food processor put the orange zest in with the granulated sugar. On the pulse setting grind these ingredients together till the orange zest is fully mixed with the sugar.
• Put the zest mixture in a mixing bowl with ½ cup of butter. Using an electric mixer, mix these two ingredients together till they are the consistency of paste.
• To this same bowl, add one egg, then two egg whites, and finally add in vanilla extract last and mix all of these together for two minutes.
• In a separate bowl mix buttermilk and lemon juice together to add a citrus flavor to your cupcakes.
• Add ⅓ of your flour mixture and half of your buttermilk mixture to the bowl, stir these up then add ⅓ more of your flour mixture and again the rest of the buttermilk and finally the rest of the flour making sure as to not dry out the batter.
• Divide the final batter in cupcake holders on your tray and put in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Make sure to check them after 20 minutes. Stick a toothpick in one and see if batter sticks to the toothpick. If it does then they are not ready.

Making the frosting

• In a separate mixing bowl, mix butter until it is fluffy, then add your powdered sugar to the mix and mix them together.
• Add your orange extract to the mix but make sure not to put too much in or else you will ruin the frosting.
• Mix these all together and chill them in the fridge while the cupcakes cool.

Final touches on the cupcakes Estimated time: 5-10 minutes After the cupcakes and frosting are done, make sure the cupcakes are cooled before applying the frosting otherwise it will turn into a mess. There’s more than enough frosting for each cupcake so apply as much as you want to the cupcakes. If you want to get a little bit more fancy you can put chocolate sprinkles or a piece of fruit on top off the cupcake. I personally used an M&M to complete it. Enjoy! Conclusion This recipe was pretty time consuming to make and even more messy. The end result makes it completely worth it though. Stay tuned for my next post where I will cover a unique summer salad.  

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