only orange

Rick requested orange cupcakes. I looked and looked and read and read and found a recipe I thought I'd try. Some had cranberries, some had other citrus, some were muffins, some didn't appear to have oranges at all and some just had too many steps. Here's what I ended with. I'm sorry I don't even remember where I found the recipe that I used.They look sort of lemony, but they are delightfully orange. The cake is very subtle. I'm wondering if they didn't quite cook enough, the tester came out clean, but they are a little soft if that makes sense. The icing is much more orange and sweet, but a nice addition to the soft sweet cake. Next time I'll get some of those candy orange slices or sugar some orange peel or something, wouldn't that be pretty.

Here's the rest of them.

They were very easy to make. I tried a couple new things this time. I sprayed the cup cake liners with bakers joy. Last week it just seemed like we'd lost so much of the cake to crumbs. Well the bakers joy was magic, but it made picking them up to ice them interesting. If we were eating them all tonight I probably would just have taken the wrappers off as I iced. I also decided to use a new method for adding the flour mixture to the mixing bowl. It's a big cake cutting guide, or like a pie crust rolling out mat, just a big piece of plastic really. Worked WONDERFULLY. I don't have a pouring shield on my kitchenaid and always make a mess adding things a scoop at a time or from a bowl, this time NO MESS. Sorry no pictures of that, but here are some more of the cup cakes.

by request from Abbie

Artsy picture of the Abbiecake

Abbie asked if we could have plain cupcakes, the yellow with chocolate icing. So here they are. YUMMY is all I can say. I googled best yellow cupcake recipe, and found one at http://http://52cupcakes.blogspot.com/2006/05/billys-vanilla-vanilla-cupcakes-with.html, outstanding. Then I found a link for chocolate butter cream, where have you been all my life chocolate butter cream!

I think I should have added a tiny big more milk for texture, but it was YUMMY.

They came out pretty well I think even with the less than perfect icing though. Notice the AMAZING new little stand my sister got me.

I suppose the true test will be how long they last. The cupcakes from last week had to be tossed when I started these, they weren't bad just not good. I've got 24, well had 24 of these to start.

now that's a cupcake

More real cupcakes tomorrow, but this one is too cool not to share.

I love snickerdoodles but...

I'm not sure I'm in love with these cupcakes.

They are ok. Taste vaguely like a snickerdoodle. The cake tastes what I think the cookie may taste like if you didn't roll it in the cinnamon/sugar and didn't quite bake it all the way. The icing WAY TOO SWEET. At least for my taste.

I did get to do some things that were fun like "burning sugar" The original recipe was adapted by someone else from a burnt sugar cake. And boiling brown sugar (second picture)

Anyway, here's what the batter looked like, kind of cool with the egg whites folded in and then the cupcakes fresh out of the oven.

52 Cupcakes

or at least that's the goal. Everyone and their cousin has a cupcake blog. I don't know that I'll start a blog, but I'm going to try to do a new flavor every week. This week, I started with ginger bread cup cakes with a lemon filling. Filling done and cooling on the counter, cupcakes baking in the oven. The batter tastes remarkably like the molasses cookies Rick loves. I just wanted to add, I finshed, filled and tasted the cupcakes. I had no idea how yummy lemon & gingerbread could be! Wow!
Baking, any cooking really, relaxes me, I have something to show for it when I'm done. We've been making bread, bagels, pasta, soup from scratch, that's all boring regular eat every day stuff. The cupcakes will be "special" no plain vanilla or boring chocolate, well unless there's a fancy topping or filling.
While making cupcakes today I realized perhaps the measuring stuff I have needs new friends. We have 2 sets of measuring cups, one was Rick's grandma's. They are the old metal ones with the size stamped into the bottom. The other set of cups, pink for the cure, kitchen aid I think. I also have a measuring cup from Crate & Barrel. I think of my aunt every time I use it, she gave us a gift card when we got married and that was one of the things we brought home. I also have a measuring cup from pampered chef. The kind that you can measure peanut butter with and push it right out. I only have one set of measuring spoons, it matches the pink for the cure cups. My bowls need friends too I think. Maybe none of it needs friends, maybe I need to be organized, but in 51 flavors I bet I'll know.
What's your favorite cupcake recipe/flavor? What's your favorite kitchen tool?