Orange Dreamsicle Cupcakes

My car was stolen on Thursday night. How helpless of a feeling it is to wake up in the morning and see a clunker in  the parking space your car is SUPPOSED to be in. I spent three entire days worried to death about Charles (yes, I gave my car a very masculine name)) wondering if he would be in pieces by the time they found him. He turned up on Sunday evening in not the best of shape, actually, in terrible shape if we're being honest. Needless to say it was a very rough weekend for me. I needed some major cheer in my life.

Like it has always been said, when life hands you lemons, make some lemonade. So I did. Except I used oranges and made cupcakes :)

I have seen several different recipes all over the web for an Orange Dreamsicle cupcake. Some of them required tools I didn't have or techniques I haven't quite mastered yet. So I winged it and made my own recipe. I did a orange/vanilla cupcake and topped it off with an orange cream cheese frosting. I added some candy orange slices to make them a little more cheery. These cuties really turned my frown upside down.


Orange Dreamsicle Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter (at room temp)
1 egg, plus 1 egg white  (at room temp)
1 1/2 tsp orange extract
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tsp milk


How To:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line muffin cups with paper or foil liners.
3. In bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In another large bowl, using an electric mixer on med high speed, beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy (2-3 min).
5. Add egg, then egg white on at a time to the sugar mixture. Beat well on low speed each after each addition, then beat in orange extract.
6. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating the with the orange juice in 2 additions. Beat on low speed until well combined. Scrape bowl as needed.
7. Beat until no traces of flour remain, but do not overbeat.
8. Add in milk and whisk until blended.
9. Divide batter into muffin cups, 3/4 full.
10. Bake 18-20 minutes.
11. Cool completely before frosting.  (1 hour)



Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:


1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp orange extract
1 tsp vanilla



Combine butter and cream cheese together in mixer with paddle attachment. Slowly add sugar 1/4 cup at a time. Then add orange and vanilla extracts. Put icing in piping bag and frost!



If you want to attempt a "swirl" design like I ATTEMPTED to do, take half of the frosting from bowl and use red and yellow food coloring to make an orange color that suits you. In your piping bag, place orange frosting on one side of bag and white frosting on other side. When you pipe it will come out with a swirl effect. I wish mine had turned out better.

Ugh. Must. Have. Darker. Orange. Swirls.

Somehow, I was able to remove myself from the slump I was in and busted out some really yum cupcakes. These were tangy and orangey and delectable. Ask my hubs. So while it may not have been the happiest weekend, at least a little something good came out of it. Oh, the joy of baking. You should try it! :) Enjoy!