Last weekend, my wonderful Mother-In-Law, Sandy, celebrated her upcoming retirement. She has been working at the same place for close to forty years! Her colleagues threw her a celebratory bash, and requested a special batch of cupcakes. I was more than happy to oblige! Mike and I thought long and hard about which flavor to make her. She likes chocolate, but that is so unoriginal - it's been done. We wanted something more festive and fun - kind of like my Mother-In-Law! So we finally decided on Orange Creamsicle cakes, topped with homemade marshmallow and orange buttercream frosting. Sound good? They were, my friends. They were.
Orange Creamsicle Cupcake
Recipe from Home is Where the Holmans Are (blogspot)
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter room temperature
2 tablespoons of citrus olive oil (you can make your own by putting some orange and lemon peels/zest in some olive oil - that's what we did!)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 eggs
Zest of 1 orange
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
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| It took a lot of oranges...Good thing I'm so strong :) |
Combine butter, sugar and oil on high until light and fluffy! Add eggs and vanilla and mix for another minute. This is where things start to smell fruity! Stir in your orange zest.
Combine your dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix thoroughly so you spread out all ingredients equally. Then, mix your remaining wet ingredients (OJ and cream). Beat in dry ingredients in 3 batches - alternate with 2 batches of the wet. Stir until just combined. Don't overdo it!
Line your cupcake tray with your favorite liners. Scoop in until 3/4 full, bake for 20 minutes at 350 or until your cupcake tester comes out without a crumb!
After your cakes have cooled off, use an apple corer to punch out the center. You will fill this little spot with the marshmallow filling (see below).
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| I love this because you get these little bite size samples. Look closely and you can see the zest! |
Marshmallow Filling
Ingredients
8 egg whites, room temperature (ever wondering what to do with the yolks? One or two are a great treat for your canine sous chef. Taiko loves 'em)
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons vanilla
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| Put a solid dollop of this yummy stuff on there! |
Orange Buttercream
Ingredients
1/2 cup or 1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/8 cup of freshly squeezed OJ
Zest of 1 orange
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
Beat butter on medium until it is light and fluffy. Add orange juice, vanilla and zest and mix until combined. Add powdered sugar until it is the consistancy you want.
*I might consider adding a dollop of orange food coloring to brighten this up a bit. Ours wasn't as bright of an orange as we were hoping for!
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| We stuck a popsicle stick in there for the cute factor! |
Those look delish!
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