My love of Pinterest has slowly been growing. Like Facebook, it tends to be a black hole of time and if I go in, I may not come out. But I’m trying to be better with where/how I spend my time with online sites. But like I said, it’s a work in progress.
But the times I do spend on Pinterest I get giddy about some of the things I find. Some things I’ll never ever attempt. Some things are just dreams. And a lot of things are recipes that either look yummy and/or doable. Have you ever clicked on something that looks delicious only to find it has 15 bajillion steps to get the perfect product featured at the top of the page? Those I tend to add to the “dreaming” pile. You know, for the day we have our own person chef that does nothing but cook… ALL day! However, there are times that something really fun pops up on my homepage and as soon as I find the time (or the right reason!) to make it, I’m all over it. Such is the case with these amazingly yummy and uber sweet orange creamsicle cupcakes! Since I’m a Clemson fan through and through, all things orange just stand out to me. I can’t help it. It’s in my blood. So, when I saw THESE beauts, I knew I’d have to give them a try one day, especially if it was for a Clemson game tailgate or game-watching party! It also didn’t hurt that we had oranges in our Noisy Rabbit basket last week too :-)
So, I thought it would be fun to take some pictures along the way and take a stab at blogging something in-process. Here’s the post that I took this from (I’ll also put the recipe at the end of this post). My cupcakes ended up not looking exactly like theirs, but I decided that I’m ok with that. It ends up being like the cream part is an inside surprise!
As the oven was preheating to 350F, I mixed the batter and put them in the cupcake liners (which I found at AC Moore).
After the first batch went in, I decided to add some food coloring to make the second batch a little more orange.
I don’t remember how much I put in, but the ratio was about 1 drop of red to 4+ drops of yellow.
PS – I HIGHLY recommend mixing in food coloring with beaters or a mixer. Doing it by hand was neither faster nor easier like I’d hoped ;-)
Just a hint of orange, nothing too crazy!
The orange ones before and after being baked.
The rest of these were taken in the evening (with no natural light through the windows), hence some of the difference in color. But it helped ensure they were COMPLETELY cooled!
The recipe said to cut small cone shaped holes in the tops of each cupcake to make room for the cream part of the cupcake.
The reason is that the buttercream icing that will go on top of this will spread the cream part towards the sides of the cupcake.
It didn’t seem to affect my cream icing, but I believe it helped even out the cake to icing ratio a bit. Plus, it also meant the icing wasn’t piled sky high.
It was simply a 7oz jar of marshmallow fluff and 1/2 cup of butter! Hey, I didn’t say these were HEALTHY cupcakes!
Once the buttercream icing is made, you can put it into a piping bag or a galon sized ziplock bag where you can cut a SMALL hole in the corner.
Be careful with the size of the hole you cut because it will expand a little once you start piping.
I added food coloring to the icing as well (using the mixer this time!) because I definitely wanted it more orange than the zest and juice were making it.
Again, I can’t remember how much of each color, but it was about 1 drop of red to every 4-5 drops of yellow.
Don’t they look delicious!
A cup of milk is probably a must with these. Enjoy!
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 T vanilla
Zest of 1 orange
1/4 tsp baking soda
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with paper liners. (This made 18 cupcakes for me but I didn’t fill some of the liners full enough.)
- Combine butter, olive oil and sugar and mix on medium high speed about three minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and mix about one more minute until well incorporated. Stir in orange zest. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine heavy cream and orange juice. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the cream mixture and repeat, finishing with the flour. Mix until just incorporated after each addition.
- Add food coloring if you like.
- Scoop batter into prepared liners, filling about 2/3 of the way full. Bake about twenty minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans about five minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
- Cut butter into small pieces and add to fluff in a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
- Cut a small cone shape into the top of each cupcake and spoon marshmallow cream into wells allowing the cream to puddle on top of the cupcake slightly.
(Don’t add too much, when you add the buttercream, it will cause the cream to move out toward the edges of the cupcakes. – As I mentioned, this didn’t happen for me, but I may not have mixed it long enough.)
- Beat butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about three minutes.
- Add orange juice, zest, and vanilla and mix until well combined.
- Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing until incorporated to reach desired consistency. Whip on medium high speed about two minutes until smooth and creamy.
- Transfer to a piping bag fitted with desired tip and pipe onto cupcakes.
